


Love or Vengeance

by dbzkink



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Play, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Canonical Character Death, Enemy Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Gay, Gay Sex, Grief/Mourning, Hand Jobs, Headcanon, Hurt/Comfort, Intersex, Intersex Piccolo, Intersex Saiyans, Lemon, Loss, Love, Love/Hate, M/M, Mates, Namekian Sex, Rimming, Romance, Saiyan Biology, Saiyan Culture, Self-Lubrication, Smut, Tails, Telepathy, True Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:06:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 79,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbzkink/pseuds/dbzkink
Summary: Piccolo keeps getting stray thoughts and emotions from Vegeta, but he can't make sense of them until the reticent Saiyan finally agrees to share his memories with Piccolo. It leads them into an unusual relationship.
Relationships: Piccolo/Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Raditz/Vegeta (Dragon Ball)
Comments: 190
Kudos: 96





	1. Despair

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Secret Training](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284016) by [sendgays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sendgays/pseuds/sendgays). 



> Comments and kudos are always welcome! Thanks for reading!
> 
> Credit where credit is due: I read  
> [A Secret Training](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284016/chapters/12196601) by  
> [sendgays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sendgays/pseuds/sendgays)  
> which is a great Vegeta/Adult Gohan fic, and Vegeta's past in that inspired me to write this. So I highly recommend you hop on over to that fic too.
> 
> Explicit all kinds of gay sex ahead as well as some intersex Namekian headcanon business that’s in all my Piccolo/Vegeta stories. There's alien/alien sex in here too, and I made up some biology, so there's that. If you don't like, don't read. This is set post-Namek, pre-Cell story, not an alternate narrative, per se, but more a "what happened off camera."

The despair was so plain on the resurrected Saiyan prince’s face that Piccolo almost reached out to hold him. Despair was not among the manifold potential reactions he’d imagined seeing on Vegeta’s face when he felt the haughty man’s energy on Earth along with the intended recipients of Porunga’s grace. The look was gone in a moment, and Vegeta’s usual blank scowl in its place.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” Vegeta barked at Piccolo, but Piccolo saw he was nervous, like he knew what Piccolo had seen.

Bulma whisked Vegeta and the surviving Nameks away, but Piccolo couldn’t stop pondering that look. Since their battle on Earth, Piccolo had tried to puzzle out the strange whiplash of emotions he’d caught rolling off the prince, even more unshielded, but no less garbled, on Namek. At first blush, Vegeta just seemed like a power-hungry maniac, bent on leaving a large wake of misery wherever he went, but Piccolo often caught Vegeta’s gaze (another interesting riddle in itself) and each time, Piccolo saw not a desire to create misery, but a desire to _escape_ it.

Piccolo meditated by his favorite waterfall, not ready to go to his empty little house just yet. The novelty of having “friends,” such as they were, and particularly his paternal affection for his young, powerful protégé, exhausted Piccolo. Worse, it made him realize the emptiness inside himself could be filled with something other than violence. That it couldn’t be filled by violence at all. But malice and aggressive solitude were hard habits to break.

Days: empty, lonely days passed, and Piccolo still couldn’t stop thinking about Vegeta’s slack, horrified face; the way he stared at his hands, turning them over, his eyes glassy. Then, like Vegeta had dropped a heavy shutter, the look was gone. Piccolo recognized that closing off because it felt like he was watching himself in a mirror.

With Goku off undoubtedly widening the gap between himself and Piccolo, and with ChiChi keeping Gohan away from him, Piccolo had nothing to occupy himself. He trained, of course, but he needed a challenge. He needed something to focus on to keep his mind away from the long, empty life ahead of him. But there was only one person he could think of who would make training interesting.

The despair wasn’t the only thing that kept Piccolo’s mind circling the prince like a vulture over carrion. Over and over again, Piccolo caught Vegeta looking at him, staring at him, his eyes boring into Piccolo as if to see into his very soul. But why? The aura he got off Vegeta vacillated between such utter personal hatred of Piccolo that it stung and a self-hatred so strong that it knocked the wind out of Piccolo. What was going on in Vegeta’s mind? The personal hatred only seemed directed at Piccolo and Goku. But even more confusingly, the personal hatred burned more aggressively at Goku, but had no accompanying self-hatred. Both were unlike the baseline malevolence Vegeta had in spades for everyone.

After more weeks of sleepless nights and pointless days, Piccolo resolved to seek out Vegeta and see if he was willing to train. Vegeta didn’t seem the sort to turn down an opportunity to get stronger, especially if it came with the potential to cause suffering to someone he hated. Piccolo didn’t examine his own motivations. There were rocks there that he wasn’t ready to turn over.

He rose at dawn, stood nude under the waterfall for a long time, mentally preparing himself for the prince’s surly vitriol. But some part of him knew Vegeta would agree no matter how passionately he hated Piccolo. Probably because of that hate. Piccolo dressed and made his expression one of bland indifference as he headed to the Briefs' compound.

Vegeta was in the wilderness near Capsule Corp. He flipped around, kicking and punching in a sequence meant to emulate battle. He wore nothing but a tiny, extremely tight pair of shorts. Piccolo breathed heavily to slow his heart as it thundered in response to the movement of Vegeta’s chiseled body, the slick sheen of sweat glistening on his tanned skin, the alluring scent of him. Piccolo stopped, realizing he was making a mistake. He turned to flee.

A gruff voice called, “Are you just going to skulk around or did you have something to say to me?”

Piccolo pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed and lowered himself to the ground near Vegeta, expecting the dark, narrow-eyed look of hatred. Vegeta met his eyes and looked quickly away. There was no hatred. Only such profound sadness radiating off the shorter man that Piccolo considered gathering him up in a hug. 

“Vegeta…are you okay?”

Vegeta’s eyes snapped up and the hate was back. “What the hell kind of question is that? Did you come here to chit-chat?”

Evasion, if Piccolo had ever heard it. Piccolo plowed ahead anyway and said, “I came to see if you wanted to train together. I…I’m bored.” Piccolo almost slipped: almost said he was lonely. That he thought the prince might be too.

A rapid-fire spectrum of emotions smacked Piccolo’s antennae, like Vegeta couldn’t help but broadcast them: loneliness and misery, hatred, lust, desperation, embarrassment, shame…Piccolo had no idea a person could feel so many things in a breath. Vegeta’s face remained blank. It only made Piccolo more curious. If Vegeta could hide that many profound emotions—how great must his despair have been to _show_ on that first day back amongst the living?

“Why were you unhappy to be brought back?” Piccolo’s mouth asked and if slapping himself wouldn’t look insane, he would have done it. Even if he weren’t personally embarrassed that he’d asked the question, it could only serve to humiliate Vegeta to remind him that he’d been brought back to life after dying at his nemesis’s hand.

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at Piccolo and hissed, “What makes you think I was? Now I have a chance to destroy Kakarot. To get my revenge. That idiot will surely return to his mate at some point, correct?”

“His mate?” Piccolo asked.

“He has his little half-breed whelp, he must have a mate,” Vegeta said, his voice that of someone explaining obvious things to a slow child, but the bitterness when he said ‘whelp’ startled Piccolo.

“Uh…” Piccolo said, wondering how to explain Goku’s relationship to ChiChi, “Goku is married, but…I, uh, I don’t think it would even occur to him to come back on ChiChi’s account.”

Vegeta’s face crumpled and Piccolo feared that the poor man was going to cry. “He…he can stand to be away from her? For so long? It’s been weeks already!”

Piccolo guffawed. “I doubt if ChiChi has even crossed Goku’s mind.”

“But…but…so killing that woman…would it…would it…would it wound him?” Vegeta gaped, his eyes were wide and uncomprehending.

This was an interesting line of questioning, one that Piccolo needed to answer carefully if he didn’t want Vegeta murdering ChiChi. “He would care in the way he cared that Frieza murdered you. Goku doesn’t like anyone getting murdered. I would never tell ChiChi this, but her murder would seem no different than any other murder to Goku: an affront to justice, but not a personal blow.”

Vegeta’s chest rose and fell faster and faster, his eyes searching the ground. His lip twitched in an almost growl and Piccolo could hear his teeth grinding. Vegeta bit out, “He didn’t seem to mind murdering my—his brother. Is there no one that would…fuck! Never mind. What is the point of training with you? Why would you wish to train with me? If you’re bored, can’t you train with your little half-breed ward? He’s far more powerful than me, though not more skilled, even if you’ve made an impressive start on his training.” When Vegeta said the last, he looked at Piccolo with admiration, but his eyes widened with horror when he realized he had just paid Piccolo a compliment.

Piccolo contained his grin. “ChiChi refuses to let him train anymore. He is supposed to focus on his schooling.”

Vegeta’s jaw dropped again and he stammered, “But…but…his…his power will go to waste! His Saiyan side will shrivel and die!”

“Yeah. It likely will,” Piccolo said, confused again why Vegeta would care about Gohan’s wellbeing and strength.

Vegeta’s nostrils flared and his brows furrowed even more. Piccolo was really fucking this up, because it seemed that he had driven Vegeta to the brink of tears again. “That is just…just…just fucking absurd! It’s…why…she…” Vegeta trailed off into a roar, his chi skyrocketed and made Piccolo’s cape flutter behind him.

Piccolo scratched the back of his neck and said, “Yeah…So…you wanna train? Maybe work through some of…of what you have going on?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, you insolent asshole?” Vegeta raised a fist at him.

Pissing Vegeta off was better than making the poor man cry, Piccolo supposed. When had he started pitying Vegeta? Vegeta would not take pity well. Pity might get Piccolo killed. Though upon examination, maybe it wasn’t pity exactly. Compassion. Recognition. Camaraderie in despair.

“Vegeta, do you want to fucking train or not?”

“Very well. Not that there’s any point to it.”

“I’m not that weak.”

“No, that isn’t what I meant,” Vegeta said, looking defeated already.

“What did you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter. Here or elsewhere?”

“Let’s go further from the Briefs’ compound so we don’t destroy their property,” Piccolo said.

“Lead the way, Namek.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“What shall I call you then? It’s not as if we were properly introduced,” Vegeta said, crossing his arms. Piccolo was surprised again because Vegeta looked a little…hurt. Like Piccolo should have introduced himself when Vegeta showed up to murder him and his friends.

“Piccolo, you can call me Piccolo.”

“As you wish, Piccolo. Let’s go."


	2. Ash and Fire

Piccolo woke earlier and earlier every morning, like his body hungered for Vegeta’s blows. Which it did. In a manner of speaking. Vegeta’s touch, was a more accurate description of what Piccolo longed for, when he was being honest with himself. And occasionally as they sparred, Piccolo saw that desire reflected in Vegeta’s eyes. But every single time it was followed by such a look of self-loathing and sadness that Piccolo didn’t dare make any kind of move. Not that he’d dare anyway. Piccolo wasn’t arrogant enough to pretend that his life wasn’t entirely in Vegeta’s powerful hands. The prince could kill him easily, whenever he wished, and certainly would if provoked. Knowing that he couldn’t proposition the prince without risking his own demise didn’t stop him from thinking about being with Vegeta constantly. To the point of almost getting killed a few times from sheer lack of focus.

Piccolo hadn’t brought home any hook-ups since he’d been training with Vegeta. But as his feelings for Vegeta became more and more intense, Piccolo feared it had become a medical necessity. Piccolo needed something more involved than jerking off to blow off some steam or he’d do something foolish while he and Vegeta trained.

Over the years Piccolo had gotten fairly adept at picking up guys to meet his bodily needs as they…arose…but Vegeta wasn’t the sort of guy Piccolo could just flirt with a little and casually ask if he’d like to spend the night. Even if Piccolo didn't fear that Vegeta would immediately blast him into the next galaxy for his insolence, Piccolo had no idea how to go about wooing the Prince of All Saiyans. Did Saiyans even date? If so, did Vegeta date men? Or have non-procreative sex? Or love, for that matter? Piccolo knew almost nothing about Saiyans, since he suspected Goku was Saiyan in genetics only.

Piccolo had hoped getting laid might cure him of Vegeta, but it was so patently unsatisfying that he almost lost his erection while they made out. It wasn’t the man’s fault. He was gorgeous, tall, though not as tall as Piccolo, and cut, though not as cut as Vegeta, with high, sharp cheekbones, smooth teak skin, and a bright white smile. His hands and mouth and body did things that normally Piccolo very much enjoyed. Yet the whole time, Piccolo ached for Vegeta’s rough, powerful hands to touch him; Vegeta’s hot, Saiyan-temperature mouth to slide over Piccolo’s skin; Vegeta’s core to engulf Piccolo. Piccolo avoided the humiliation of going limp, but once was enough. And once was _never_ enough for Piccolo. It terrified him that Vegeta was changing him. Consuming him.

It was too early to ask the man to leave. Piccolo wasn’t an asshole. Well, not in bed, anyway. He kissed the man’s lips softly and murmured, “I’m headed out. Lock up when you leave. Thanks for last night.”

The man’s golden eyes opened blearily and he whispered, “Mmm…no, no. Stay with me, yeah? Start your day off right,” and his hand toured the ravines between Piccolo’s ab muscles.

“Sorry, I’m running late already…” He bent and kissed the man again and sprang out of bed before he saw that Piccolo was actively losing his Vegeta-dream-induced hard-on from the man touching him. He threw on a fresh gi, grabbed his cape and head wrap, and launched into the air. Vegeta always found him. Today would be no different. Piccolo would just warm up on his own. Try to sweat out some of his infuriating, pointless lust.

He stopped short, mid-air, absently throwing on his cape and cap. Vegeta was already out training. His chi felt…enraged. It was four-thirty in the morning—why was Vegeta even up? Piccolo suppressed his chi and flew slowly in the direction of his training partner.

Piccolo saw the dark, smoky cloud and the trees toppling before he saw Vegeta. He heard roar after animalistic roar as giant trees teetered and fell before flying through the air where chi blasts incinerated them, turning them to thick ash that clouded the air, making it hard to breathe. What could have Vegeta in such a state?

Piccolo dropped into the woods and crept toward the clearing Vegeta had created in his mysterious wrath. He watched as Vegeta pummeled an enormous tree, his knuckles and forearms, feet and shins bloodied from so many blows, and likely from the lack of control Vegeta was exhibiting. His teeth ground audibly, even from many meters away. He hissed at himself, “You fucking perverse fool. You fucking soulless monster. What the fuck is wrong with you, Vegeta? How? Him? Him of all the fucking beings in the universe?” Another series of blows.

Piccolo winced. Vegeta was deliberately not guarding himself as he hit the rough bark. He was trying to hurt himself. Only it was hard to hurt a Saiyan. Especially one as powerful as Vegeta. He was having trouble hurting himself, even when he bent all his will to that end. Who was he talking about? Why was he so angry about the person?

The massive, ancient tree succumbed to Vegeta’s rage, and he flung it into the air, blasting it again and again until the air was clogged with sap and fire and ash. Vegeta fell to his knees and his shoulders shook with giant, heaving sobs.

Piccolo’s hand flew over his mouth both out of shock at the prince’s anguish and to stifle a cough that threatened after burning detritus flew up his nose with his sharp intake of breath from seeing Vegeta’s abject misery. Piccolo wanted so badly to comfort him, but to reveal himself now would only humiliate Vegeta.

Piccolo crept away from Vegeta’s attempt at catharsis. He flew far enough away that he hoped Vegeta would sense him and have a moment to compose himself. Piccolo raised his power and returned to the forest, broadcasting his chi.

Though Piccolo didn’t have the omniscience and mind-reading skills Kami had, he could pull strands of thought from people when he felt strongly about them and they felt strongly in turn. He regularly knew exactly what Gohan was thinking. But mainly he used it to feel out people’s moods and intentions. Sometimes people unknowingly broadcast their thoughts and feelings and Piccolo would receive unwanted mental murmuring. 

But it still shocked Piccolo when a sharp, erotic image of himself beneath Vegeta came in his mind’s eye, the imagined way Piccolo’s skin would taste, Vegeta’s hand cascading down his body as he thrust powerfully into Piccolo. White-hot rage incinerated the vision, and such profound loss and grief rose out of the ashes that Piccolo screeched to a halt mid-air, tears erupting out of him uncontrollably at the pain in his chest, the bitter twisting of his stomach caused by the back half of the bellowed thoughts.

After a moment of sobbing from the unexpected transmission from Vegeta, Piccolo shook his head vigorously and continued his flight toward the enigmatic prince. Piccolo wanted to help Vegeta. Wanted to fuck Vegeta. More confusingly, he wanted to apologize to Vegeta. But for what, he didn’t know. 

Another thought hit Piccolo so viscerally it staggered him: two velvety brown tails, twined around each other, sliding together so sensually that Piccolo got hard, which filled him with his own baffled shame. Piccolo felt like a creepy voyeur, but he could feel the tails touching as if one of them was _his_ tail. The luxurious softness of the fur, the heat of it, the muscle so strong it could constrict like a snake. And the sexual bliss of the other man’s tail on his. Piccolo had no idea what was happening to him. He stopped again and strongly considered masturbating to deal with his tail-sensation hard-on, but he breathed through the erection, willed it away, and carried on.

Despite Piccolo approaching with his chi at full volume, Vegeta still shrieked with astonishment and hid his face when Piccolo touched down near him.

Vegeta snapped, “Fuck off! I’m not training today! Fuck off, right now, or I will kill you. Get out of here.”

“Vegeta…what’s wrong? What’s going on?” Piccolo warily approached him. Vegeta trembled and Piccolo could smell his salty tears and his coppery blood.

Vegeta didn’t withdraw, but he kept his face hidden. Piccolo got closer and Vegeta growled, “Go away,” and then much more softly, almost pleading, “Please, Piccolo, please just go away.”

“Vegeta, please let me help you—“ Piccolo said, but stopped with a cry when another anguish-filled vision filled his mind, though he didn’t understand it. Horror and disgust and rage tore him apart, ripped out his entrails, when someone—Kakarot!—touched his mate’s tail. Held it fast. Then grief so overwhelming Piccolo threw up. He vomited, bent double, and wailed.

Vegeta turned in shock, his eyes red and raw and his ash-filthy face streaked with tears. Piccolo sobbed too, even sadder now that he knew Vegeta had transmitted everything unintentionally. Sometimes Goku or Krillin would send Piccolo thoughts and feelings, but Vegeta had not meant for him to see or feel anything. These thoughts were hitting Piccolo because they were so overwhelming, so unguarded, so explosive. Vegeta couldn’t contain suffering of this magnitude anymore. Piccolo threw his arms around Vegeta, not knowing what else to do.

Shame as powerful as the grief, and no less bitter, wracked Piccolo the moment Vegeta accepted his embrace. But it wasn’t Piccolo’s shame, it was Vegeta’s. Lust followed it so closely and powerfully, then love,and warm, pulsing, aching longing and hope and happiness, all so wild that the emotions unbalanced Piccolo and he fell, Vegeta collapsing on top of him, unable to escape Piccolo’s powerful arms encircling him.

Piccolo kissed Vegeta’s forehead and crushed the smaller man against his chest, and gasped, “Shh…Shh…Vegeta…Shh…Hey, hey, come back, come back from wherever you are. Breathe. Breathe. Please, just breathe.” Tears still streamed out of Vegeta, out of Piccolo. Piccolo struggled to control himself in the face of this incomprehensible mental attack.

“Get off me!” Vegeta bit out, but his arms were around Piccolo too, his face buried in Piccolo’s chest.

Piccolo flew them out of the toxic ash and smoke to his favorite waterfall, not knowing where else to go. He didn’t dare go home, since the man was likely still in his bed, and he wasn’t sure why, but he imagined that would destroy Vegeta right now.

Vegeta staggered out of his arms and into the water, swimming to the cave entrance and rock outcropping beneath the waterfall. The Saiyan prince scrubbed his hands over his face in the powerful spray and dropped to his knees, his head thrown back so his face took the brunt of the cascade. Piccolo breathed a sigh of shaky relief that Vegeta wasn’t casting out thoughts and memories and feelings like gamma radiation anymore, but there were lower level pulses of misery that were making Piccolo sick to his stomach. His connection with Gohan was nothing like this. This felt like he was accidentally snorting Vegeta’s thoughts like lines of cocaine. Maybe more like Vegeta was throwing handfuls at his face, since it didn’t feel voluntary. Piccolo hadn’t even been trying to read Vegeta’s mood.

Piccolo worked on shielding his mind so he didn’t lose himself in the deep well of sadness where Vegeta struggled not to drown. Taking in the thoughts and feelings of others had always required such effort that Piccolo wasn’t exactly sure how to stymie this onslaught. Then, as suddenly as the psychic tsunami had begun, it ceased, and Piccolo no longer had any sense of Vegeta’s state of mind at all. It was like ringing silence after a cacophony.

Vegeta was out of the falls now, the ash cleaned off him by the rushing water. Vegeta’s face morphed into the blank, vaguely terrifying, mask that he displayed to the world. Piccolo admired Vegeta for that level of control. He hadn’t realized until the events of that morning just how great a feat it was for Vegeta to appear so stoic.

“Do you still wish to train today?” Vegeta said, his voice flat, affectless.

“Vegeta…do you…do you want to talk? About…about whatever just happened?” Piccolo took a step toward him.

“I’m sorry you came upon me when I’d…” Vegeta’s mask almost slipped but he continued, “lost control. It won’t happen again.” Vegeta’s fists were so tightly clenched that Piccolo saw blood oozing out of them from Vegeta’s nails slicing into his own palms.

Piccolo didn’t like this turn of events. Vegeta was an active volcano: one that didn’t smoke or rumble, but erupted spontaneously, without warning. And Piccolo feared the next time he might be buried in the lava and ash, suffocated by the toxic gases. Piccolo didn’t want to feel the paralyzing grief and vomit-inducing sadness again, but it also horrified him to let Vegeta experience those things alone. He wanted to comfort Vegeta, but he wasn’t sure he could effectively do that if the riptide channel of Vegeta’s emotions opened up again.

Piccolo had always considered himself stronger psychologically than Vegeta, but he was hilariously wrong. The emotions Vegeta was battling would wash Piccolo’s entire mind away like a mudslide off the side of Volcano Vegeta. It astounded Piccolo that Vegeta had been functioning as well as he had with all that going on. Keeping it hidden, too, which must exhaust even the tireless Saiyan.

Piccolo stammered, “Vegeta…I don’t think training will help. Is…is…is there something—“

Vegeta spit, “You can shut the fuck up. I don’t need your pity, and I’m disgusted that you…that you…that you…” Vegeta’s face shifted like someone else was trying to control his expression. He bared his teeth and hissed, “You should not have seen me like that!” Tears flooded his eyes and they seemed to anger him so much that it pushed him over the edge into crying. He spun away from Piccolo and took off, but Piccolo, for once, was one step ahead of Vegeta.

He caught the broken Saiyan in his arms and held him again. He whispered, “Nameks…Nameks are telepaths, you know?”

“What’s your fucking point? Let go of me! Fuck! Are you trying to kill me? The humiliation of this entire situation will be the death of me,” Vegeta twisted and squirmed in Piccolo’s hold, but he could have ripped Piccolo’s arms off if he truly wished to free himself.

Piccolo took a shaky breath. He wasn’t entirely sure he would survive what he was about to suggest. Vegeta was made of sterner, and maybe more passionate, stuff than Piccolo. The things Vegeta was feeling dwarfed almost every emotion Piccolo had ever experienced…save one. The one that was making him consider what he was about to do.

“If…if it would be easier…you can show me. I can press my forehead to yours. You could show me.”

Vegeta eyes went wide with horror and he spluttered, “There…there’s nothing to show! What are you on about? Just fucking let me go!”

“Vegeta, are you really going to act like nothing’s going on? You’ve obviously been pretending for a long time.”

“Fuck you! I have no right to feel jealous! No right to be so angry! I didn’t even have a right to know about it!”

“What? Who are you jealous of?”

Vegeta said with a snort. “Don’t pretend you don’t know. I felt…I felt your consciousness.”

“The man touching the other man’s tail? You’re jealous that he touched the other man’s tail? And that somehow led to you losing him?” Piccolo said, still trying to cobble together understanding.

Vegeta contracted into a ball, then exploded, sending Piccolo crashing into the Earth so violently he didn’t get his guard up. His back and skull throbbed painfully as he laid motionless in a crater, looking up at Vegeta’s body, smoking and hunched, hovering high in the air. Vegeta’s posture was so defeated that Piccolo surmised that Vegeta hadn’t known, until Piccolo told him, that Piccolo had seen the tail vision.

Vegeta plummeted to the Earth, free-falling from such a height that it would surely kill him if he didn’t stop himself. Piccolo could feel Vegeta was conscious, so it wasn’t that. Piccolo rocketed up, despite his pain, and caught Vegeta in his arms again. This time he was ready for a blast, but all he got were sobs and radioactive shame rippling off Vegeta so strongly Piccolo wished he had figured out how to shield his psyche. It crushed him, like he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow, couldn’t move.

“Vegeta…” Piccolo choked out.

Then Vegeta kissed him: furiously, angrily, and passionately kissed him. And Piccolo kissed back, no longer giving a shit about anything but Vegeta’s lips, his sensuous tongue. Piccolo groaned, unable to help himself, because it felt better than his craziest fantasies. His tongue curled into Vegeta’s mouth as Vegeta’s traced his fangs, spilling some of his blood into Piccolo’s mouth. Vegeta’s lips pulled at his, demanded more of Piccolo, and Piccolo wanted to give it. He wanted to give Vegeta everything.

Vegeta’s hands tore at Piccolo’s gi, ripping his shirt to shreds, and he was strong enough that he simply snapped the lead-weighted cloak off like it was no more than fabric. Vegeta’s mouth moved down onto Piccolo’s jaw, holding the other side with his hand. His other hand splayed insistently on Piccolo’s tailbone, forcing Piccolo’s hips against Vegeta’s. Vegeta would feel exactly how much Piccolo wanted him through their thin training clothes. Vegeta growled low in his throat as he yanked Piccolo’s belt off, kicked at his shoes, and Piccolo’s pants fluttered down to the ground.

Vegeta’s strong, hot hand wrapped around Piccolo’s prick. Vegeta kissed him even more deeply as a moan escaped Piccolo’s lips. Vegeta stroked Piccolo slowly, his touch light until he rubbed his palm over Piccolo’s slit as pre-cum poured out of him. Vegeta’s newly slick hand gripped Piccolo more firmly, sliding up and down his entire length, his thumb sliding in Piccolo’s slit every time it reached his head.

Piccolo shoved Vegeta’s shorts down off his narrow, muscular hips and Vegeta’s erection popped free. Piccolo pulled out of their kiss to spit in his hand and twisted it up and down Vegeta’s shaft. His other thumb found Vegeta’s nipple as his hand gripped that glorious pec. His thumb circled the hardening nub in time with his hand sliding up and down Vegeta’s beautiful cock. Vegeta’s lust and hunger and arousal buffeted Piccolo’s psyche. They turned him on even more and he feared he would come too soon. Because he wanted this to last. He feared what might happen afterwards.

Vegeta clung to him as they continued pleasuring each other. He kissed Piccolo desperately and Vegeta’s mind was filled with how long he had wanted this: as long as Piccolo, as painfully. The sudden wave of jealousy and fury that crashed over Piccolo almost made him jerk away from Vegeta. 

The night before, Vegeta had felt Piccolo’s chi rocket up and drop off. Piccolo knew from experience that that type of chi shift usually only meant one thing. Vegeta had known Piccolo was fucking someone. Had _hated_ that Piccolo was fucking someone. The thought made Piccolo so happy that he immediately felt guilty for desiring Vegeta’s suffering in any form. Piccolo was relieved that the heady psychic channel did not flow both ways.

“Don’t be so fucking sure…” Vegeta growled in his ear and nipped it before sucking hard and biting his neck, moving down onto his chest, finding Piccolo’s sensitive nipple. Vegeta sucked one until Piccolo was practically whimpering, despite his horror that Vegeta had been hearing and seeing his thoughts, too.

“Vegeta…you’re…you’re going to make me…” Piccolo gasped, his shame forgotten.

“I want it, Piccolo. Please…” Vegeta whispered against Piccolo’s nipple, and resumed his sucking, grazing his teeth over it.

Piccolo panted as Vegeta’s hand sped up. Piccolo’s orgasm hit him with such force that it made his eyes water. Vegeta’s climax slammed into him, too, the multiplied pleasure making Piccolo’s abs cramp as he curled over Vegeta’s hand, taking Vegeta’s mouth with him as they came together, semen splattering them both in big, hot spurts. Alternating waves of his own pleasure and the pleasure he’d brought Vegeta sloshed around him.

Piccolo kissed Vegeta more frantically now. He didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to go back to pretending he didn’t feel the way he did. Not just the lust, but how much he wanted to be with Vegeta every minute. That he ached to do as Namek lovers did and press their foreheads together each night and share themselves. That he didn’t know if he could live without Vegeta in his life.

So the anguish and grief and regret that surged out of Vegeta made Piccolo sob. But Vegeta still kissed Piccolo, holding his face between his big, rough hands. Waves of love and lust and affection followed, then more sadness and betrayal. Piccolo didn’t know what to make of such an overwhelming amalgam of conflicting emotions. He wanted Vegeta to be at peace, to not feel so horribly torn, especially about being with Piccolo.

Piccolo whispered, “Vegeta, show me, please…please. Please let me in.”

Vegeta shook and cried and kissed him. Vegeta took a shuddering breath, shivering like he was freezing to death, even though the day was already sweltering, and pressed his forehead to Piccolo’s.


	3. Tails and Betrayals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is mpreg in this chapter, but light, not hard-core. I didn't tag the story as mpreg, because it's not really an mpreg story, but fair warning in this chapter.

_“You can’t send Nappa, Vegeta, he’s an incompetent idiot. Loyal and strong, but…you know how he is. Kakarot is my brother, I’ll bring him in. The Earthlings are not known for their warriors, anyway. What could go wrong?” Raditz says as his fingertips trail down Vegeta’s back just the way Vegeta likes._

_Vegeta squeezes Raditz’s chest, their tails slinking over each other’s bodies, filling them both with such satisfying love, such pleasure. After a moment listening to the steady, slow whooshing of his mate’s heart, Vegeta sits up. He kisses his lover’s mouth, first just a peck, then more deeply. Vegeta climbs between Raditz’s legs, his hunger makes his throat tight. Raditz smirks up at him, wrapping his legs behind Vegeta’s, pulling the smaller man inside him roughly._

_“My beloved, you are insatiable. You just had me…” Raditz coos and caresses Vegeta’s face tenderly before grabbing his ass more aggressively, grinning._

_“I feel how wet you are, pet, don’t pretend you don’t want this. You need it,” Vegeta kisses his love more before he bites Raditz’s hard pectoral, licks over to the other, bites that one too. He shivers with how delectable his mate’s skin tastes. He says quietly, more seriously, “What if it takes? You shouldn’t be alone if it takes. Especially so far away.”_

_“Vegeta, we’ve tried for years. Every heat we try.” Raditz laughs, but it’s sad, not amused, and Vegeta’s heart turns inside out. Raditz continues with a weak smile, his obsidian eyes locked on Vegeta’s, “Every day. This one won’t be any different. And we’re fucked if Frieza finds out. This is the only way, especially if it takes. We need Kakarot if it takes. But I’m afraid you chose a barren mate. I’m sorry you’re stuck with me, my beloved.”_

_Vegeta slides his hand up over his mate’s chest and neck, holds Raditz’s perfect jaw, and plants kisses on his mouth, his nose, his eyelids, and says, “I could be the barren one. I’m never sorry I chose you, pet, I never will be. Never sorry that you chose me,” Vegeta says, his heart aching that his mate would ever think he has any regrets. He loves his mate so fiercely. Raditz’s heat smell washes over Vegeta as he thrusts into his love. The slick heat of Raditz’s entrance is making him pant already and he smiles down as Raditz writhes against him. Vegeta purrs, “Gods, pet, the way you grip me…” Their tails twine together and Vegeta gasps with the intense pleasure that only their tails can bring._

_Vegeta drives harder into his love, pushing his thighs up and wide. He kisses the inside of each of Raditz’s knees before adjusting himself so he can watch as his cock slides into his only’s sweet ass. Raditz’s lubricant drips out of him freely he is so pleased with Vegeta’s ministrations, and Vegeta loves the sight of it. The visual proof of the satisfaction he brings his mate. He smiles remembering the thousands of times he has brought Raditz this pleasure. The years they have spent loving one another, the only solace each has had in the misery of their servitude to their cowardly overlord. But Vegeta will free his beloved soon. If they can retrieve Kakarot, and if Vegeta fights enough battles, takes himself to the brink of death enough times, they can overthrow Frieza. And if they ever conceive their long wished for child, it will be born free._

_Vegeta breathes, “I love you, Raditz, I will always love you, with or without children,” and kisses him as they come together._

* * *

_Vegeta listens in horror to his scouter, his mouth agape behind his hand. What is happening on Earth is unbelievable. Like a nightmare, but Vegeta isn't sure his subconscious could have conjured such a shitty turn of events. Nappa has his hand on Vegeta’s back, steadying him. It breaks Vegeta’s heart and shocks him that Kakarot and his child won’t join with the last of their Saiyan kin to defeat Frieza. That Raditz’s own brother would rather kill him than help them free themselves and others from Frieza’s tyranny. He always could have gone back to Earth if he didn’t wish to rule the universe by their side, Earth was of no strategic or monetary value._

_Vegeta screams and vomits as Raditz’s own brother violates every taboo known to Saiyans, committing both incest and tail-rape, by not just touching, but forcefully grabbing and clinging to Raditz’s tail, moving his hands over it to get a better hold, sliding repulsively along its length, as if Raditz were his own mate, not his brother. Kakarot uses the weakness the violation causes to incapacitate Vegeta’s beloved. Vegeta is helpless, light years away, but he is bonded to Raditz so intensely that he can feel it, as if it were his own tail: the revolting, powerful grip of the disgusting fool who had been their only hope for freedom. Vegeta wonders if having no tail means Kakarot has no soul, no empathy._

_Vegeta hears the battle turn. Kakarot proffers mercy to Vegeta’s beloved, agrees to stop groping and handling his tail if Raditz leaves Earth immediately. Vegeta wishes bitterly for Raditz to do as Kakarot says. But Raditz’s pride gets the best of him, and Vegeta understands, even if it breaks him to hear it, even as he cries out mentally to his mate to take the mercy, to come home to Vegeta. Vegeta couldn’t have stomached the tail-rapist’s mercy for himself either, but there is nothing Vegeta wouldn’t have done to give that mercy to his mate, to have his beloved safely back with Vegeta, and to feel his unborn child still alive in Raditz’s finally fertile womb._

_The dual surprise of a powerful Namek warrior and the astonishing, if unwieldy, power of Kakarot’s half-breed son makes Vegeta tear at his hair. That Raditz’s traitorous brother has a child at all, a hybrid begat on some Earth woman, is a bitter pill in itself, but the fact that the pup has just grievously injured Vegeta’s mate is an extra level of mockery from the universe. Once the Namek warrior reveals his unexpectedly potent attack, Vegeta knows in the blackened remains of his heart, that it is over._

_To the bitter end, Raditz tries to help Vegeta, help his people. He speaks into his scouter about the things he's learned about the Earth warriors, about the dragon balls, about Kakarot, so that Vegeta can find this traitor to his family, his people, his heritage. Raditz is trying to help Vegeta achieve freedom, even if it will be empty and worthless without his beloved mate. Vegeta will use the information to find this tailless, soulless monster, and annihilate him for what he has done so at least Vegeta can have vengeance, if not happiness, if not love, if not his Raditz._

_It staggers Vegeta when the killing blow comes not just to his one and only, but also to the source of Vegeta’s vengeance. The incestuous, tail-violating idiot sacrifices himself so another can strike the fatal blow while Raditz is held fast by Kakarot. Kakarot dies to kill his brother. Vegeta wants to vomit more, but he is empty._

_Vegeta burns to self-destruct. He ramps himself up, but Nappa crushes him in his gigantic arms and pleads with him, “The dragon balls, Vegeta. Didn’t ya hear Kakarot say to the other fella that he could wish Kakarot back to life with the dragon balls? We gotta go now and get those things. We can wish Raditz back, like he said, and you’ll be okay. You two can get through…what…what…what Kakarot did, the filthy motherfucker.”_

_Vegeta swallows hard. Yes. They will. He has to be strong and merciless and cunning and ruthless and persistent. He will be all that and more to get his mate back. To bring his mate back to him._

_“But…but…” he sobs to Nappa, “He was finally pregnant. After so many years, we were finally going to have our baby. Kakarot murdered my mate…and my child.” Vegeta allows himself to sob and Nappa sobs with him. Kakarot is no true Saiyan, so Vegeta and Nappa are all that is left now. They are alone in the universe. Vegeta is not a bearer, and even if Vegeta could stomach seeding Nappa, he is not a bearer either. There will be no more Saiyans without Raditz’s resurrection. And even then, the child would likely be gone, though Vegeta is unsure how these dragon balls work. But conceiving that child was the only lucky thing in Vegeta’s life besides Raditz: he will never be that lucky again. He and Raditz had failed so many times for so many years, and the only other time one took, it came many months too soon, dead before it was ever alive. Nappa lets Vegeta cry and he is grateful that the big man says nothing more. There is nothing to say to someone who has lost their mate. Their child._

* * *

_Maniacal laughter burbles out of Vegeta, because he is losing to the tailless traitor and his spawn. The dragon balls are gone because the Namek sacrificed himself for the half-breed whelp. Vegeta’s only hope for happiness sacrificed himself for the son of his mate’s murderer and Vegeta decides there is no justice in the universe. No kindness. No mercy. And his heart calcifies into a hateful thing. A broken thing. A dark, shadow of the loving organ that used to beat for Raditz. But none of it matters anyway because—thanks to the dragon balls Vegeta will never get to use—the idiotic, perverted younger brother of his mate is back from the dead, orders of magnitude stronger, and destroying Vegeta. Robbing Vegeta of even the solace of vengeance._

_Vegeta’s transformation into Oozaru is a relief. It is the only time he is free from his crippling grief. There is only one thing Vegeta could have imagined being worse than his mate’s violation and death, and, as is the pattern in Vegeta’s life, it happens: some fat, cowardly Earthling cuts off Vegeta’s tail. Vegeta was oblivious to his presence because his chi is so negligible. But once Vegeta’s tail is gone, all hope is gone too. Worse still, his tail held so much of his memory of Raditz that it is like losing Raditz all over again: not just physically but mentally, emotionally, the very essence of their bond. Vegeta’s soul shrivels inside him. He is too broken to do more than rant and rave and vow to kill them all. But Vegeta knows it is an empty threat without his tail._

_When Kakarot shows Vegeta mercy—mercy that he didn’t have for his own brother, for Vegeta’s mate—Vegeta wishes he had the energy to self-destruct. But he clings to life and new hope: Namek. Namek has dragon balls. The inexpressible shame and humiliation of what he is now…unmanned…de-tailed like the lowest of criminals…Vegeta can’t stand it. Disappointment crushes him at the thought of bringing his beloved back to a de-tailed mate; the suffering that would cause Raditz makes Vegeta’s stomach twist painfully. Bringing Raditz back to Vegeta as he is would be selfish. Raditz would be happier in death than with a disgusting, tailless mate. So Vegeta resigns himself to a life of lonely vengeance once he finds the Namekian dragon balls. Everyone will suffer as he has. Every single Earthling. Every being in the universe._

* * *

_On Namek, the tall Namek returns as a result of the foolish Earthlings' wishes. Vegeta is somewhat relieved: immortality was the only path to destroying Frieza, but the thought of an eternity without his mate was horrible to contemplate. Vegeta considers annihilating the Namek as partial revenge for his love’s death, but the Namek is no longer the same Namek that Vegeta encountered on Earth, even if he has the same face. Vegeta doesn’t fully understand what has changed, but the towering warrior is altered in some fundamental way._

_Vegeta’s entire being has been ripped out, chewed up, shit out, and stuffed back inside him so many times since Raditz arrived on Earth, that Vegeta no longer understands himself. Vegeta is no longer what or who he was before Raditz’s death. Vegeta wishes for vengeance, but it is hollow and meaningless now that he understands he can’t kill Kakarot. Kakarot is too strong. So his only hope for even a taste of revenge is to end the recently resurrected Namek._

_But Vegeta chooses not to end the Namek. This_ is _the Namek who dealt the killing blow to Raditz, and yet he is_ not _the one. Vegeta doesn’t know what to make of this chimera Namek, or more confusingly, his own mercy, something Vegeta has never given or received, until Kakarot. The Namek was just Kakarot’s tool, and the Namek wasn’t the one who violated his love in his final moments. Yet the Namek is the one whose blow ended Vegeta's mate, so it horrifies Vegeta to feel a stirring of something in his belly for the tall warrior. The shame of feeling anything like what he feels so soon makes him relish death by Frieza’s hand, if not the dealer. Death, at least, releases him from the suffocating grip of his suffering._


	4. New Territory

Vegeta yanked his forehead away from Piccolo’s. On Earth, only minutes passed. But Piccolo lived years of Vegeta’s life with Raditz. Piccolo trembled. The love between the two Saiyans was profound, shockingly tender. It was loving and playful and romantic and passionate and supportive. Piccolo never expected any of those things from Saiyans, in general, but especially not from two male Saiyan warriors who were mocking and ruthless and cruel in battle.

Piccolo’s ribcage contracted at the memory of their tails together, the way they held one another when Raditz left for Earth. Raditz whispered against Vegeta’s ear that it had finally taken: he was pregnant at last. Piccolo felt the hot kiss Raditz planted on the turn of Vegeta’s jaw, Vegeta’s favorite place for Raditz to kiss him, other than his mouth. Piccolo felt Raditz’s belly under his hands, the very last time Vegeta got to touch his mate’s bare skin. They weren’t really Piccolo's memories, but they were so visceral, that now they were his, as if he had been there all along, lurking in Vegeta’s subconscious.

Piccolo’s heart lurched in his chest. He ached to help Vegeta move past such grief. But what could Piccolo do when anything he did made Vegeta feel so shitty? When he was the one who had murdered Vegeta’s mate? Thoughtlessly. Without even a tiny moral pang. It certainly never crossed Piccolo’s mind that someone had loved that big brute. Not like this. Not at all.

“Vegeta…I…Gods…I’m so sorry. I…I didn’t know,” Piccolo said, wishing he could go back in time and spare Raditz, even if it meant Earth’s annihilation. Piccolo would prefer that to having caused Vegeta so much agony. Piccolo hadn’t known it was possible to cause such suffering without physically harming a person.

Vegeta shook his head sadly. He held his face in his hands, still shaking, as they sank back down to the earth, coming to rest on the grass by the waterfall.

Piccolo rubbed Vegeta’s back and held him when the smaller man scooted closer. Piccolo’s eyes widened as Vegeta crawled into his lap. Piccolo said nothing more. He didn’t need to imagine how Vegeta felt trying to reconcile developing feelings for Piccolo with the fact that Piccolo had killed the love of his life, one of the final few survivors of his race, and the would-be bearer of his child. Piccolo had felt Vegeta’s inner turmoil as if it was his own. Piccolo had murdered the last full-blooded Saiyan baby, and now he had Vegeta’s grief from that, as well as his own guilt.

At the time, killing Raditz seemed the only way. Piccolo wished Raditz had been less hot-headed, Goku less stubborn and obtuse. It didn’t surprise him that Vegeta’s mate was quick to anger and exasperation, that he knew no middle ground, and that he demanded obedience. Piccolo had never been one for mercy or half-measures either: Piccolo was more Saiyan in spirit than Goku had ever been.

Piccolo received nothing mentally from Vegeta now. As if after Vegeta had overflowed, he had been able to turn off the valve to his psyche. He said against Piccolo’s chest, “I thought you just guessed at my anger about what…what you did last night. But that wasn’t it, was it?”

Piccolo shook his head, held Vegeta tighter. “I…as I got closer to you when you were in a rage, I got hit with waves of memories, but they were fragments, confusing, and out of context, I didn’t understand what I was seeing, or even whether they were your memories or thoughts. I do now. But I…I was _you_ in those memories. I felt the sensation of your tails together. The…the horror and revulsion when Goku…when Goku did that. Did what he did. And I’m sorry for doing the same to Nappa. I…I didn’t know.”

“It’s not the same with someone who isn’t mated. Certainly inappropriate, but…but…not…not what Kakarot did. You’re also not Saiyan. Even though it’s disgusting to have anyone touch your tail without permission, a Saiyan should know better. It’s in our DNA. Kakarot knew better. That’s why he did it. He knew the result. You never would have done that to Nappa if Kakarot hadn’t taught you that it worked. Nappa learned from Raditz though, he knew Earthlings held nothing sacred. Tch,” Vegeta scoffed with a little smile, “Until now, I never thought about the fact that even Saiyans have some things we won’t do in battle. Not you Earthlings though, no holds barred here.”

Piccolo breathed easier as Vegeta’s body relaxed against his. They shifted together so Piccolo stretched out on his back and Vegeta sprawled on top of him, his leg between Piccolo’s, his hand running over Piccolo’s skin experimentally. Vegeta said softly, “I had never been with another until you. Raditz and I fell in love very young. We mated young. Until you, I had never wanted it. Never thought I _could_ want it again.”

Piccolo didn’t know what to say, so he curled up to kiss Vegeta. He thought maybe Vegeta just needed someone to listen to him after suffocating for so long in sadness and grief and anger. Even though it had been over a year, much of that had been when Vegeta was in transit, in suspended animation during his spaceflight. So Piccolo held Vegeta tightly and let him grieve.

“Do Nameks mate for life?” Vegeta said quietly.

“Some do. Physically mating, to bear young, is usually reserved only for someone you truly love. We have something like what tail-touching is for Saiyans. The same level of intimacy and sacredness. And in that sense, I’m unmated. I’ve fucked other men, as you know, but I’ve never been in love. Until you. I’ve been alone my whole life,” Piccolo said, wishing it sounded less pathetic.

“I’ve been so lonely here, on Earth. Aside from my mate,” Vegeta’s voice trembled like he might cry. Piccolo felt Vegeta swallow hard. “Aside from Raditz, we were also always with Nappa. The three of us have been inseparable since we were taken by Frieza when I was six.”

“How old are you? Why did you kill Nappa?”

“I’m not sure, thirty-ish? Thirty-five? Hard to know. It’s not like we kept track after we were taken. Especially since we were never in the same system for more than a few weeks. Saiyans are long-lived and don’t really age until the last few years of our lives. We stay fertile our whole lives…if we’re fertile at all…” Vegeta let out another shaky breath, paused, and then continued, “As for killing Nappa…that broke my heart, but Kakarot had broken his spinal cord. Even our healing pods rarely fix that. And Saiyans can’t live their lives as cripples. Even I would be cast out, as I am. I was also…enraged…that he had killed you. He eliminated my only hope for delivery from my despair. But if he hadn’t been broken, I don’t think I would have done what I did. But I can’t say for sure. I…I was not at my best. I’m still not. I never will be. Not without him.” Vegeta sighed jerkily and Piccolo felt the hot splash of a tear on his chest.

He ran his hand up and down Vegeta’s back, laced the fingers of his other hand with Vegeta’s fingers. “Do…do widowed Saiyans ever love again?”

Vegeta blew an amused breath out his nose and chuckled. “Apparently.”

Piccolo moved his head to look in Vegeta’s eyes. Had Vegeta just admitted to loving him? Vegeta’s eyes held his, unwavering. “Do you?” Piccolo whispered.

“It would seem so. I certainly wouldn’t have done what I did without love. I…I couldn’t. Maybe before I’d had him. If I’d met him later so there had been others before. But after him, I can’t imagine bothering with anything sexual without that connection.”

Piccolo froze. Vegeta loved him. Piccolo’s heart flip-flopped around so vigorously in his chest that Piccolo was embarrassed, certain that Vegeta would hear. “Is…did…did what I did…last night…trigger this?”

A low, predatory growl came from Vegeta, like it emanated from his whole body, not just his throat. “ _That_ was my fault for not acting soon enough. And I was very angry. At myself. At you. At whoever that fucker was.”

“I had no idea you…you even, you know, _tolerated_ me, let alone…loved me,” Piccolo said, still a little nervous that saying it out loud might result in Vegeta blasting him.

“It feels…wrong…to love again,” Vegeta said, another hot tear dripped onto Piccolo’s skin, “Especially since the person I love is…is…is the one who took him from me. It can be…confusing. I don’t know what he would want.”

“I think, I guess, not that I really knew him, but I…I kind of do after you showed me…I think he would want you to be happy, Vegeta. He really would.”

“I should have committed suicide when I realized vengeance was beyond my reach. But I’ve always been weak that way. Proud. Selfish.”

“You’re wrong, Vegeta. I lived so many of your memories. He would never want that.”

“What is the point of living?”

Piccolo’s lungs froze, but he remembered how all-consuming Vegeta’s grief was, so rather than talk to Vegeta, he pulled Vegeta up toward his face. He clamped his hand on the back of Vegeta’s skull and pressed his forehead together with Vegeta’s again, but this time, he poured himself into Vegeta. The spark of lust when he’d seen Vegeta the first time. His grudging respect for Vegeta on Namek, with growing lust, but also admiration for the way Vegeta died, begging Goku to kill Frieza, putting aside his pride and thirst for revenge to make Goku understand the nature of his foe. Piccolo’s joy when Vegeta was resurrected and his worry about Vegeta’s sadness.

Piccolo’s mind held a million other snips and moments: Vegeta smirking and laughing at him; little quips Vegeta made that were subtle compliments, usually followed by a wide-eyed look of embarrassment; Vegeta telling him how to better himself through thoughtful evaluations of their sparring sessions; and more recently, the way they would talk together, easily and pleasantly, before going their separate ways in the evening. The playful teasing they engaged in while sparring. The way Vegeta often, without a word, joined Piccolo in meditating, seemingly with the sole purpose of relieving Piccolo’s loneliness. More nebulous memories of the way Piccolo felt when he was with Vegeta, the peace and lust and joy and amusement and relief, such blessed relief, to finally be with someone who seemed to understand Piccolo implicitly.

Piccolo released Vegeta’s head, stealing a kiss before Vegeta pulled away. Vegeta’s eyes slid open and met Piccolo’s in a way they hadn’t since he’d allowed Piccolo to see inside him. Vegeta’s eyelids lowered, but didn’t close, as he kissed Piccolo more, more deeply, more hungrily. 

Vegeta murmured, “I don’t know how to mate without a tail, but I also don’t know how to…to…be with someone I’m not mated with.” His fingers danced along the tiny, velvety ridges of Piccolo’s flank skin, making Piccolo shiver with delight. They trailed lower to the line where his skin turned smooth and flat on his hips and legs. Vegeta’s fingers spread wide and gripped Piccolo's hip, seemingly just to feel him, not to move him or pin him, just to enjoy the feel of Piccolo’s hip under his hand.

Piccolo grinned against Vegeta’s lips and held Vegeta’s jaw. “You saying you want to mate with me, Vegeta?”

“Yes. I think I am,” Vegeta said, dropping his head for another kiss.

“You Saiyans are extreme. All or nothing and no space in between, is there?”

“I feel like you’re leaving me hanging, Piccolo,” Vegeta whispered and kissed along Piccolo’s jaw, his hand coming up off Piccolo’s hip to trace the muscles of Piccolo’s torso.

“Mmm…I would love to mate with you, Vegeta. I want you so badly…” Piccolo said, rolling his hips up against Vegeta.

“I want you too, though you seem…different…than Raditz.” Vegeta lifted Piccolo’s leg unceremoniously and looked at Piccolo’s asshole. Piccolo chuckled, but Vegeta continued, unfazed except by saying his dead lover’s name, “Raditz’s entrance would get slick when he wanted me…”

“Oh, right, yeah, I saw that in your mind. I do not do that, so you have to use lube. Or spit, in a pinch. But lube is best with someone your size.”

“I’m significantly smaller than you,” Vegeta said, perplexed.

“I meant your dick, Vegeta,” Piccolo said, kissing him and giving the aforementioned a gentle squeeze.

“Oh!” Vegeta said and grinned helplessly, which made Piccolo grin in turn.

“Come home with me. Today we’ll do a different kind of training,” Piccolo said and sucked on Vegeta’s neck.

Piccolo was relieved that releasing his grief into Piccolo seemed to have given Vegeta some peace, like maybe just the secret of his deep love for Raditz and the trauma of his loss had been eating away at Vegeta’s composure, and now that the it was in the open, Vegeta could begin to heal instead of rotting from the inside out. Piccolo also firmly believed that good sex could always put a little pep in anyone’s step. And maybe new love gave Vegeta new hope. It certainly did for Piccolo.

Piccolo’s body thrummed with excitement as they flew naked and hand-in-hand back to Piccolo’s house. As they got closer, he was relieved he didn’t feel the man’s tiny chi in his house, even though it was still very early. As they stepped inside Piccolo’s house, Vegeta took one deep breath and growled, throwing open all the windows as he stalked around the house. Piccolo half expected him to start peeing on things, so Piccolo almost died laughing when he followed Vegeta back toward his bedroom and found Vegeta aggressively rubbing his jaw and the back part of his armpits on Piccolo’s bedroom doorjamb. 

“What are you doing?” Piccolo said, chortling, and kissed Vegeta.

“I smell that son of a bitch everywhere. I’m marking what’s mine,” Vegeta said as if this were obvious and natural behavior, and his voice was so low and feral that Piccolo got hard just hearing it. Vegeta tossed Piccolo effortlessly across the room, onto the bed, but then he growled again, threw Piccolo over his shoulder and ripped the sheets off. Vegeta carried them and Piccolo down the hall and stuffed the linens in the washing machine, sniffed the detergent first, as if to be sure it would do the job, and started it. Vegeta set Piccolo down for another bout of marking on the laundry room door.

“Why are you marking my laundry room?” Piccolo asked, unable to stop laughing.

“So no one can try to cover their tracks,” Vegeta said with a little grin on his face, not like he thought it was funny, but like he’d come up with an excellent and foolproof scheme.

“I’m not going to cheat on you, Vegeta. Aside from not wanting anyone else, that seems like a good way to get myself and someone else murdered,” Piccolo said as Vegeta threw him back over his shoulder. Piccolo bit Vegeta’s bare, glorious ass.

Vegeta made a choked noise of horror. Piccolo thought for a moment that he’d hurt Vegeta. The Saiyan gasped, “I would never hurt you!” in an affronted tone.

Piccolo chuckled and said, “I bet if I cheated, you would.”

“If you seek sex from another, it’s because I’ve failed to please you. It’s my own fault. Not yours.”

“Uh…okay. So if you cheat, it’s my fault?” Piccolo said, raising an eyebrow even though Vegeta couldn’t see his face.

“Of course not! I would never cheat on you and _that_ would definitely be my fault.” Vegeta said, outraged.

“Vegeta, your logic is pretty…porous.”

Vegeta set Piccolo down and his eyes grew wide. “Oh. Oh! Are you…are you a seeder?”

Piccolo thought for a moment and said, “Uh, I think so? Do you mean a top?”

“A seeder…hmm…giver is maybe a better translation, can be on the top or the bottom and that’s usually quite variable to enjoy one another. Do you do the penetrating?” Vegeta asked, looking concerned, like maybe he thought that Earthlings only stuck to one sex position.

Piccolo chuckled. “On Earth, the person doing the, uh, penetrating is usually called a ‘top,’ regardless of the sex position. The person being penetrated is called a bottom. So if the bottom is riding the top, it’s called bottom-on-top,” Piccolo explained, kissing Vegeta and moving him toward Piccolo’s bedroom, where the lube lived. “Giver and receiver, pitcher and catcher, I’m sure there’s lots of terms, but I’ve never heard ‘seeder,’ that’s new. Some guys on Earth are verse or switch, meaning they do both, depending on their partner and the situation.”

Vegeta nodded seriously, pausing for another bout of marking, which Piccolo thought might be unconscious, incited by places Vegeta could smell other men. “Hmm…Intriguing. Saiyan males—we had females too, though they were much less common—but amongst Saiyan males, some are bearers. They can be impregnated and their asses self-lubricate. Certainly non-bearers are seeded sometimes, since not all seeders fall in love with bearers, but usually in bearer-seeder relationships, the bearer is always penetrated. Bearer-bearer relationships perhaps engaged in this switch and verse behavior.”

“Some bottoms are like that, some tops are like that on Earth. I imagine as with all sex things, it’s pretty flexible. But…yeah, I’m a top, or a, um, seeder. Or have been. With other guys.”

Vegeta seemed enraged by the mention of other men, and simultaneously flummoxed by how to respond to Piccolo’s declared sexual preference, so Piccolo tipped Vegeta’s chin up and kissed him. “But I’ll receive for you, Vegeta. Though I won’t say that I don’t want to fuck your perfect ass, because I do, if you’re open to us mixing it up.”

Vegeta searched Piccolo’s eyes and said, “So…you would receive me sometimes and I would receive you sometimes?”

“Yeah,” Piccolo said, grinning and kissing Vegeta’s thoughtful little scowl, taking Vegeta’s hands and putting them back on his ass. But Vegeta stepped away and unconsciously rubbed his jaw all along Piccolo’s window frames, taking a second pass with the backs of his shoulders. Vegeta tagged the headboard, the footboard. Bizarrely, he marked Piccolo’s closet doorframe.

Piccolo chuckled and rolled his eyes. “And since we’re having a logistical conversation, I might as well tell you that I’m…uh…a bearer, of sorts. Nameks all have both male and female reproductive capabilities. But we have a whole different entrance for mating with males, called a _theadur_. But it’s a sacred thing, only for mates. That’s what I was talking about earlier. And it’s…well, if you don’t want to have children, it’s not the way to go. So there’s still a lot of anal amongst Nameks. _Theadurs_ reeeally like getting pregnant, so they punish you for non-procreative sex.”

Vegeta finished marking, or at least stopped marking. He kissed Piccolo enthusiastically, pushing him toward the bed. His excitement was palpable and contagious, making Piccolo pant. Vegeta said, “I assume that it is less…intense…to begin with anal sex, then? Is that is why you wished to start with that? Or because you’re unsure about mating with me? If you don’t wish to mate, I apologize, I just marked quite a lot of your house,” Vegeta froze, looking horrified and ashamed.

Piccolo hooked his arm under Vegeta’s ass and lifted him up so Vegeta looked down to kiss him. “Vegeta, I do want to mate with you. But I don’t want to get pregnant right now. Is that okay? I’ll introduce you to my _theadur_ long before we make a baby, though, I promise.”

Vegeta kissed him tenderly and looked into his eyes as he whispered, “If you were my mate, and you were killed, would you…would you really want me to do this? To move on? To find another?”

“Yeah, Vegeta, I really would. I want you to be happy. I want that now, no matter what happens. Even if you had just told me to fuck off and I lived the rest of my life jacking off while thinking about you, I’d still want you to be happy with whoever made you happy, as long as they loved you well, treated you right. And from what I saw, that’s definitely what Raditz would want for you.”


	5. Earth's Customs

Vegeta wrapped his legs around Piccolo’s chest and floated off the ground, taking Piccolo up with him, and laid Piccolo on the bare mattress. 

“Can I put clean sheets on the bed so we don’t just get cum everywhere?” Piccolo said, pushing up on his elbows to kiss Vegeta more. Vegeta again looked confused. Piccolo continued, “Even if you’re the penetrator, I hope you intend for me to come,” feeling the first flutter of worry.

“Yes, of course! I noted that you chose to release when we touched each other before, so I followed your lead. But do you always choose to release, even when you’re not penetrating someone?” Vegeta’s brow furrowed.

“Did Raditz not blow his load when you fucked him?” Piccolo said, arching an eyebrow.

Vegeta shook his head. “No. It’s considered rude to release semen if you aren’t penetrating, or if you aren’t trying to mate. Unless of course your partner desires it, as a pleasurable…hmm…I have heard this Earth word, but I can’t recall…kink! Yes. Cum kink? Am I using that correctly?”

Piccolo’s worry turned to elation. “Yes, kink is usually reserved for more…unusual activities.”

“Spraying cum all over the person fucking you is certainly unusual,” Vegeta said with a little snort of laughter.

Piccolo chuckled and said, “Not on Earth. Okay…So you can come without giz? Like, a dry orgasm?”

“Yes. Of course. Can you not? Saiyans can choose whether or not to release semen. I did not know there was so much variance amongst sexually reproducing, Saiyanoid species,” Vegeta said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, and Piccolo wanted him to look more like he wanted to have sex, less like he wanted to take notes and maybe see a hologram presentation on sex.

Piccolo caressed, Vegeta’s face. “Sorry, when I come, there’s always cum. That’s just how Nameks work. Humans too, for the record. But if you can come without semen, you could fuck my _theadur_ without impregnating me, but also without pulling out or wearing a condom.”

“What is a condom? What is pulling—oh, no, I get that one—succinctly self-explanatory. I occasionally pulled out because I enjoyed covering my mate in my seed, and he enjoyed it as well. Do you enjoy that?”

“Vegeta, you’re getting really clinical on me here, I think we should just start messing around, but let me put on some sheets, because I’m going to come and I don’t want to ruin my bed.”

“Will these other sheets smell of the male you fucked?” Vegeta said, growling again. Piccolo thought maybe fucking Vegeta was borderline bestiality. Piccolo couldn’t be sure, but he thought Vegeta actually raised his hackles, if it was possible for his crazy-ass hair to become more aggressive looking.

“Fuck, I hope not, unless he was marking up my stuff like you, except without my knowledge or consent.”

“May I smell them before we cover the bed in them? The bed itself already retains his lingering scent, which I hope to obliterate with my own scent. But your explanation of human penis function clears up why it smells like his semen even though you penetrated him.”

Piccolo laughed and curled up to kiss Vegeta, who thankfully took to the kissing again like there hadn’t been a long interlude about various species’ orgasm mechanisms, preferences, and customs. Vegeta snaked his arms under Piccolo and held him in a half-sitting position. Piccolo whispered, “Yes, you can smell the fucking sheets. C’mon, I want you.”

Piccolo rose up off the bed with Vegeta on his hips and carried the curiously heavy Saiyan to his linen closet. Whenever Vegeta slammed into him while they were fighting, Piccolo assumed it was speed that made it feel like he was getting hit with a space ship, but now he realized that mass was a contributing factor. “Fuck, Vegeta, how much do you weigh? Very few things still feel like an effort for me to lift, but you almost require effort.”

“Saiyans are very dense. I do not know how much I weigh on Earth, but more than you, certainly, if our collisions are any indication.”

“That’s so bizarre. I’m a thick dude, and a lot taller than you.”

A shockwave of longing and sadness blasted Piccolo along with memories of Raditz teasing Vegeta about his height, Raditz’s catastrophic weight settling on Vegeta’s hips as he rode Vegeta, Raditz lifting Vegeta high in the air, jokes about Vegeta wearing heels, Raditz always bending to kiss Vegeta, never making Vegeta come up off the ground, or even onto his toes, to meet his mouth. The snug way they fit together when they slept, with Raditz curled protectively around Vegeta, even though Vegeta was significantly more powerful, and more tail-twined memories that made Piccolo shudder with pleasure that anything could feel so good without being an actual, in-progress orgasm. No wonder Vegeta was upset about the prospect of not having that if Raditz were brought back to life. Their tails were so…integral. Piccolo felt like feeling it through Vegeta’s memories was a gift, a blessing from Raditz’s spirit.

Piccolo whipped his head back and forth, shaking his antennae, and squeezed his eyes shut before blinking a few times. He said, “Vegeta, we’re going to have to work on controlling when the valves on those channels open up. I don’t mind, but it almost knocks me out when you take me by surprise.”

Vegeta leaned back and looked at him with his brows scrunched together, his eyes wide and guileless. “Channels? What? What did I do?”

“Didn’t you just have a whole string of memories about your height difference with Raditz?”

Vegeta’s cheeks flamed red, his face crumpling as his eyes filled with tears. He held his eyes closed for a long moment and sighed. “I’m sorry. I try not to think of him—“

Piccolo kissed him softly and said, “Vegeta, no. No, that isn’t at all what I meant or want. It’s fine to think of him. You can’t possibly help thinking about him. I just…do you really not mean to broadcast that? It’s like being hit by a psychic tornado.” Vegeta looked like he might flee, so Piccolo continued, “Can I show you?”

Warily, Vegeta nodded. Piccolo thought of all he’d felt for Vegeta over the past few months, his lust and aching longing and love and curiosity and he stored it up for a moment before flinging it at Vegeta’s mind.

Vegeta yelped and held his skull, flushed again, and kissed Piccolo like he would die without it. Piccolo kissed back, one hand clutching Vegeta’s broad, powerful back while the other gripped his ass. They kissed for a long time, just standing in front of Piccolo’s linen closet. Piccolo reached into the closet, fumbling with sheets in his peripheral vision.

Vegeta sniffed them and said, “I think I’m just smelling him on you. I could block it out when we were outside, but I…would…could we bathe? Would that be okay? I’m sorry. Saiyans smell even more things than your Earth bloodhounds.”

Piccolo carried the sheets and Vegeta into the bedroom and tossed the linens on the bed. “I would love to bathe with you, Vegeta.”

They sat side by side on small stools, soaping up and rinsing off as the tub filled with steaming water from the hot springs on Piccolo’s property. He scrubbed Vegeta’s back, making Vegeta actually purr. Piccolo’s mate could purr. Piccolo couldn’t contain his smile. Piccolo rinsed Vegeta and kissed his back, tiny pecks all over his shoulders and upper back.

Vegeta groaned, “Oh, this is nice. Very nice. It never occurred to me that bathing might be a pleasurable activity to be engaged in for leisure.”

Piccolo turned him back around and slid his mouth up over Vegeta’s dripping jaw and onto his lips. Vegeta reached between Piccolo’s legs with a soapy fist and moved it tightly down Piccolo’s entire length, jerking up and down in small movements at the base and then sliding all the way back up to his head, his thumb swiping back and forth over his tip, then doing the same again and again. Vegeta scooted closer to him, dropping off his stool onto his knees and he murmured, “Can I make you come? In here?” as his other hand tugged Piccolo’s balls, his fingertips dangerously close to Piccolo’s _theadur_. So close that Piccolo wanted to roll himself forward and take Vegeta’s fingers inside himself, but he would save that for later.

He whispered, “Vegeta, you can make me come wherever you want to make me come.”

“Except the bed without sheets,” Vegeta said, so serious that Piccolo realized he wasn’t making a joke, he was just clarifying the rules.

Piccolo gave a little chuff of laughter. “Except the bed without sheets.”

Vegeta grinned and his hand moved faster, his mouth roaming over Piccolo’s damp, chilled shoulders, the heat of it such a delectable contrast, dropping to flick his tongue over Piccolo’s nipple. He growled, “Your dick is perfect, Piccolo, once he’s off you, I want to take you with my mouth.”

Piccolo bucked up into Vegeta’s hand at his words and ejaculated, earning another pleased growl from Vegeta and more purring. It was fun to have such a frank, no-nonsense lover. And one who purred. Piccolo gasped for breath and finished rinsing them off. He climbed with Vegeta into the tub.

Vegeta’s eyes went wide. “Is this what the large basin in my quarters at the woman’s house is for? Oh…oh…oh…” Vegeta slumped down into the water until only his face remained above the surface. “I…Oh gods…Earth has some excellent luxuries. I have swum, of course, and been in various bodies of water to clean myself, but…but…never, never hot. Hot like your skin. Hot like your mouth. It’s like my whole body has your mouth on it.”

Piccolo floated back behind Vegeta and wrapped his arms around the smaller man. Vegeta briefly tensed, and Piccolo wondered if he thought Piccolo was going to fuck him with no warning or foreplay. But Vegeta relaxed and purred more as he spoke, “Did…did you mean the things you brain-smacked me with?”

Piccolo threw his head back and laughed, “Brain-smacked is the perfect term for that. Except when you do it to me, it’s a whole sequence of rapid-fire smacks, sometimes while shaking me. It’s very intense. But yes, Vegeta, you can’t lie or deceive in a brain-smack. That’s why it’s so intimate. It’s all truth. I chose what I showed you, to a certain extent, but I can’t show you anything that isn’t true or anything that I don’t genuinely feel. It just doesn’t work like that. Dishonesty is a concept that doesn’t even exist amongst Nameks because it would immediately be known to everyone that you were trying to lie. It makes them the way they are. As you saw. Not naïve, but trusting. Foolish at times.”

“You are very different than those Nameks. Is that merely your Earth upbringing? Or are you different in some biological way? Your power dwarfs theirs, as does your stature, and seemingly your intellect, not that I spent much time interacting with them outside the murdering.”

“I would wager that most interactions in your life, Vegeta, were murdering.”

Vegeta smiled broadly and said, “Mmm…Indeed. Murdering and fucking and loving. Those were my life.”

“When did you and Raditz mate?”

“Hmm…well, his first heat was when he was around twelve, I think, and I believe I was roughly a year younger than him. So, around eleven and twelve? Not all Saiyans mate with their first heat-coupling, but we did. We loved each other so much we even let our tails twine before our heat-coupling. Long before. Even though that’s considered improper.” Vegeta quivered as he spoke.

Piccolo’s eyebrows shot up. “So you fucked him with the intention of having a child when you were eleven?”

“Even though we gain muscle mass and sometimes height until we are older, Saiyans are fully mature around nine. Sometimes ten. But by eleven I’d been masturbating for a couple years. Raditz and I had been touching each other since we first discovered what dicks could do when you touched them. Which happens very young amongst Saiyans. I don’t even remember a time before Raditz and I touched each other.”

“Wow. Damn. You guys were together a long time.”

“We were always together. I thought we always would be.” Vegeta rolled in the water and rested his chin on Piccolo's floating chest, his hands exploring Piccolo’s body under the water. He said, his eyes never wavering from Piccolo’s, “You make me happy, Piccolo, even if I feel guilty about how deeply and quickly I’ve fallen in love with you. You make me happy like he did. Even if…Even if you took him from me. Though that is how Saiyans claim another’s mate. As a child, before Saiyans were exterminated, I knew at least one couple that came together after the older one murdered the younger one’s mate.”

Piccolo kissed his Saiyan enigma and enfolded Vegeta in his arms. “You make me happy, too, Vegeta. I’m sorry that I took that from you. I’m sorry that…that I didn’t even know it. But I want…” Piccolo felt overwhelmed and a little foolish, but he decided to forge ahead. The man had just literally marked Piccolo’s house as his territory. He said, “I want to be yours. Forever. I love you, strange as that may seem, after…after everything.”

Vegeta’s eyes were intense as they took Piccolo in and he purred, “No. Not strange. I love you too. Do Earthlings not know love when they feel it in their bellies? Do they have some other way of sensing it?”

“Uh…I’m not sure. I’m a Namek, for starters, but, I think Earthlings might be less decisive than you. Than Saiyans.”

Vegeta’s hands roamed more aggressively over Piccolo’s body and he kissed Piccolo’s neck and jaw. His purring became more pronounced as he moved against Piccolo’s body. “Mmm…Piccolo…I would like to take you out of our bath and onto our bed, but I fear that we will have to pause to put your cum-proof sheets on the bed. I’m a little displeased that I can’t have you immediately. But I believe we also need the ‘lube’ you spoke of, since I don’t wish to hurt you. Perhaps non-bearer Saiyans need that as well. My ass doesn’t lubricate, so I suppose if you fuck me, I would also need lube.”

Piccolo chuckled and whispered, as they stood and stepped out of the bath, drying off with chi as they kissed their way into the bedroom, “Let’s go get the bed made, Vegeta, and maybe we can show each other a thing or two?”

“Oh, yes, I very much look forward to showing you many things. To pleasuring you in many different ways. I’ve wanted to do so for a long time.”

“Yeah, me too,” Piccolo whispered and before they ever made it to the bed, Vegeta swept Piccolo’s legs out from under him and laid him on the floor. Piccolo’s heart raced and Vegeta’s burning eyes made him ache with love. Vegeta kissed over his jaw and down his neck, dragging his tongue between Piccolo’s pectorals as his mouth moved lower. Piccolo had never endured lust with love layered underneath it and he panicked that he was going to explode, or at least come the minute Vegeta’s mouth was on him.

“Mmm…no shame in that, dove, let me love you,” Vegeta said and purred more.

Piccolo gaped. Vegeta had heard his thoughts. Piccolo had not been broadcasting them, and he didn’t think Saiyans were telepaths. He stammered, “Uh…Vegeta…do you…do you hear all my thoughts?”

Vegeta paused, looking confused, “What? Thoughts?”

“I didn’t say anything out loud.”

“You just asked me a question, did you not? About me hearing your thoughts?”

“No, before that. You said there was no shame…”

“Yes. You were concerned about coming too soon. What is too soon? So absurd. Come when you are pleased, yes?”

“But I didn’t say that, I just…I only thought it.”

Vegeta’s eyes widened. “Hmm…Yes, now that I reflect. It wasn’t aloud…Yes. I think I hear them only when you are distressed. Like when you were concerned that I wouldn’t make you come while we had sex. Earlier. I heard that as well. It feels very similar to hearing you speak.”

“You…” Piccolo swallowed hard and continued, “You’ve been hearing my thoughts?”

“Since we kissed, yes, but not all the time. As I mentioned. Only when you’re…loud. You were initially very loud about my marking. Do Earth seeders not mark? Your customs are very confusing. You also enjoy my purring, leading me to believe you cannot purr? Which was a relief, I thought perhaps you weren’t enjoying our bath.”

Piccolo’s eyes felt like they might pop out of his head. “No, I can’t purr. I love that you purr. Are…are Saiyans telepaths? In general?”

Vegeta considered this. “No. I don’t think so. Raditz and I could share a lot via our tails, but not verbally the way I receive your thoughts. It was more…impressions. Perhaps you experienced that when I shared my memories with you?”

Piccolo nodded. “Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Uh, sorry, if my thoughts are…you know…it’s a lot to take in.”

Vegeta canted his head and smirked. “I’m not even inside you yet.”

Piccolo laughed and kissed Vegeta more. “No, and, um, you might…I’m very virgin, so, um, we may have to work up to your dick.”

“Of course. If you’ve never been penetrated, my prick would be quite an accomplishment for your first time.”

More laughter burbled out of Piccolo. “I haven’t had this much fun in bed, ever, and we haven’t even really started.”

“And we’re not in a bed,” Vegeta added with a smirk and continued his oral journey down Piccolo’s abs. “Stop fretting about things. It’s my job to please you. It’s your job to experience pleasure. If I fail, you can tell me, or I’ll figure it out. It’s an adventure to discover my mate’s body and what excites you.”

Piccolo pulled Vegeta up his body and kissed his mouth. They writhed together and Vegeta caressed his face as they kissed, his eyes open and searching inside Piccolo. Piccolo had never felt so connected to anyone in his life. It was electric, making his entire body feel tingly and warm.“Do I get to have my own adventure, Vegeta?”

“Mmm…yes, we’ll explore together. Gods, Piccolo, your mouth…” Vegeta devolved into a purring growl as he kissed Piccolo savagely before he moved back down Piccolo’s body.

“Can we…can we sixty-nine?” Piccolo asked and immediately felt the ripple of Vegeta’s confusion and the flurry of his mind trying to turn up some meaning for the term. Piccolo continued, “It’s when we suck each other at the same time.”

“Oh! Yes! We call it dual-docking, but it makes sense that a non-space-faring people wouldn’t use that term.” Vegeta grinned, kissed Piccolo and asked, “Would you be more comfortable on the top or the bottom?”

Despite all the tender and caring memories Piccolo had experienced from Vegeta’s relationship with Raditz, it still took him by surprise whenever Vegeta was so…solicitous. He curled up to lift Vegeta’s lower body. Vegeta laughed and spun on his hands as Piccolo pulled his body around until Vegeta’s hips were over Piccolo’s face. Piccolo rasped, “I like either, as long as I get to have your prick in my mouth…gods, Vegeta, I’ve dreamt of this.”

“I’ve dreamt of you, Piccolo. Of loving you,” Vegeta whispered and rolled his tongue around Piccolo’s tip. “Of pleasuring you.” He sucked Piccolo’s length down, making Piccolo gasp with ecstasy. “Of tasting you.” Vegeta’s hand joined his mouth, moving firmly up and down Piccolo’s length. “Of you loving me in return.”

Piccolo wrapped his lips around Vegeta’s cock as Vegeta took him so deeply in his mouth. Piccolo realized with another flare of terror that Vegeta had vastly more experience than him. Vegeta was an incredible lover, and while Piccolo was not inept, he had never had any long term relationships where he spent time perfecting the art of pleasuring someone. Vegeta had been perfecting his skills, his control, and obviously his tongue’s muscle coordination, for decades.

“Dove, shh…Your mouth feels incredible. Relax, relax…” Vegeta murmured and slipped his mouth back over Piccolo, his tongue exploring Piccolo’s slit. “Mmm…your pre-cum is delicious…”

Piccolo’s mouth filled, rather startlingly, with Vegeta’s pre-cum, in unexpected volume. They might not need lube after all. He groaned. It delighted him to arouse Vegeta so much. Then Vegeta began to purr and Piccolo cried out around his cock because nothing had ever felt as good as Vegeta purring on him. Piccolo pulled off as he gasped, “Holy shit, Vegeta, holy shit!”

Vegeta said nothing, but purred loudly as he sucked Piccolo. Piccolo’s mind went almost blank it was so blasted with pleasure and he blew Vegeta by instinct alone, unable to focus on anything other than how fantastic Vegeta’s mouth was. The haze cleared for a brief moment as Vegeta paused to growl, “Come for me, dove, my heart, come for me,” before his tongue did some incomprehensible thing that pushed Piccolo so hard into his climax that he trembled.

Vegeta climaxed in his mouth too, his cock twitching and pulsing, but nothing came out except more pre-cum. But as Piccolo spurted, Vegeta made a little noise of curiosity and Piccolo felt Vegeta’s dick tremble and Vegeta’s semen filled his mouth. Very nearly actually filled. Piccolo swallowed and licked his new Saiyan mate’s cock until he was finished, and he gasped as Vegeta purred and trailed his tongue up Piccolo’s slit a final time.

Vegeta rotated his body and bent to kiss Piccolo. He looked into Piccolo’s eyes and said, a little question in it, “You came in my mouth?”

“Do you want me to tell you, so you can move off me? As I mentioned, Nameks always have semen when we come—“

“No. No. It just…I’ve never had that happen before. I’ve never done it. Are you alright? Saiyans are…voluminous…with our seed.”

Piccolo chuckled. “Yeah, you are, at least. That was startling, but it’s fine. I like it. Next time you can finish me with your hand if you don’t want it in your mouth,” Piccolo said, feeling suddenly self-conscious.

Vegeta looked affronted. “No! Not that. It was just novel. It’s not…rude? On Earth? I felt very rude. I didn’t mind that you did it, I just…I’d forgotten that you don’t control that. It startled me. But…yes…I think I like it as well.”

“Um, no, some people don’t like it, but you just warn them and they pull off. Some people spit. You don’t have to endure something that feels rude. I don’t want to do something rude to you, Vegeta. You can pull off.”

Vegeta kissed him and curled into Piccolo’s armpit so Piccolo wouldn’t have to bear his weight. Vegeta sighed and purred so quietly that it was less a sound and more a sensation as he said, “No, I’m on Earth with an Earth mate, I’ll assimilate. It does hold a certain appeal. It feels very…passionate…that it should happen to you. That you would come in my mouth like that. It is hard for me to imagine not being able to prevent it. Earthlings must have many accidental pregnancies.”

“That they do. It’s interesting that I can feel you come, but then you were still able to…release…after you came.”

“The window is small, but when the pleasure is still intense, it’s easy. Harder as it diminishes. If you would like me not to come in your mouth, given how much it is, I won’t be hurt.”

Piccolo squeezed Vegeta. “I like it. I like tasting you. I like that you get to let go. Even if you don’t have to. Does it feel different to come with semen versus without?”

Vegeta shrugged, his purring stopped, and he said, “I suppose it does, but neither is better per se, they’re just different. I…as I mentioned…even though it is considered somewhat…deviant…I quite enjoyed releasing my seed on Raditz. We knew it was…atypical…but we especially liked doing it together. I would pull out and he would allow himself to release. It was delightfully messy, regardless of whether it was appropriate. I suppose since our entire race is dead, such cultural mores are irrelevant.”

“You’ll be happy to know that that isn’t the least bit deviant on Earth, and is a pretty major part of male sexual culture. In porn it’s basically a requirement. It’s called a cum-shot. Earthlings like seeing ejaculation.”

Vegeta rose up on his elbow and smirked down at Piccolo. “And you, dove? Do you?”

“Very much,” Piccolo said and leaned up to kiss Vegeta.

Vegeta pulled away after a moment and whispered, looking into Piccolo’s eyes, “I can taste myself.”

“Is that okay?”

“I like it. It feels…powerful. Like you’re mine.”

“I am yours, my prince,” Piccolo said, hoping the endearment wouldn’t piss Vegeta off.

Vegeta grinned though, and laughed, before kissing Piccolo more and whispering, “Let’s make the bed. I’m not done with you yet, dove. Not even close.”


	6. Bodily Exploration

Piccolo didn’t know what to make of being called a type of bird, but the way Vegeta said it was so affectionate, that he assumed maybe it was some Saiyan endearment that didn't translate correctly. He remembered Vegeta calling Raditz “pet” and supposed that for a species that purred, marked their territory, and raised their hackles, calling your loved one a type of animal was natural. Piccolo thought maybe the novelty of having any endearment addressed to him was part of the strangeness. Piccolo calling Vegeta his prince had felt playful at first, but once it was off his lips, it also felt…true.

Vegeta helped Piccolo make the bed, obviously following his lead, and Piccolo wondered what they did instead of sheets wherever Vegeta lived. Where had Vegeta lived? There were a lot of unknowns that never really came up when you just started interacting with someone casually and then things got deeper and you didn’t know a lot of basic information, but it seemed silly to ask where Vegeta had lived after he’d sucked Vegeta’s cock. In all the memories he’d seen, Vegeta and Raditz were always outdoors, with wildly different landscapes surrounding them, and some were fuzzy, like Vegeta could remember the incident, but not exactly where it occurred.

Vegeta pushed Piccolo back onto the freshly made bed and Piccolo scooted back as Vegeta crawled above him, licking and nipping his body. Vegeta said, “I want to taste every bit of you…” and licked along Piccolo’s pecs before sucking on his nipples aggressively, one after the other, making Piccolo writhe. It was strange to be the recipient of so much dominance. Piccolo was dominant one in all his previous interactions. He wouldn’t have predicted that it would turn him on…but it did.

Piccolo lunged up to kiss Vegeta more, wanting to taste his mouth, and Vegeta straddled Piccolo so he could bend down and kiss him. “You are very tall. Taller than Raditz, who was quite tall.”

“I am. But we fit together nicely, don’t you think?”

“I do. Yes. I do,” Vegeta growled and reached back underneath himself to stroke Piccolo. “Do you wish to fuck me or shall I fuck you? I’ve…it…I don’t know how we decide. Is there...a way Earthlings decide?” he asked, his pensive little scowl returning.

Piccolo kissed it off his face and laughed, “I’ve never been a switch, so I think it’s probably like deciding sex position: we just decide or let what happens happen. I also think we maybe want to set our sights a little…narrower…for today. For a few days, even…”

“Yes, but who gets…hmm…prepared first? Is there a protocol for being a switch-verse? I’m intrigued by the idea of you being inside me. It’s not something that ever occurred to me before. Do Earthlings ever…hmm…I don’t know how to translate…do they ever put their mouths on asses? Like some men do with vaginas?”

Piccolo almost squirmed with how adorable Vegeta was. With his innocent yet obscene questions. His marking and his purring. Gods, Piccolo wanted to squish him and hug him and fuck him and kiss him forever. It still felt like a dream that Vegeta was here, in his bed, asking if rimming was a thing people did on Earth. “Yeah, we call it a rimjob or rimming, there’s other terms too, but that’s what I say. I love rimming.”

“Do you…do you like being rimmed?” Vegeta asked, an eyebrow raised as his hands explored Piccolo’s body, tucking under the backside of Piccolo’s hips unconsciously and pulling their crotches together, putting ridiculously good pressure on Piccolo’s prick. 

“I’m pretty sure I’ll like anything with you, Vegeta. Doing anything to you.”

Vegeta moved back down Piccolo’s body, pushed his legs up and wide, then stared at Piccolo for a moment, caressing the back of his thighs. Vegeta’s eyelids fell heavy and he began to purr softly again. He took Piccolo’s cock in his hand, then fondled his balls, and he whispered, “Is this,” he startled Piccolo as his finger traced the slit opening of Piccolo’s _theadur_ soft as a breath of wind, “where you mate with males? Your _theadur_? Am I saying it correctly?”

Piccolo wasn’t as startled by the touch as by the fact that Vegeta had noticed. Only a few lovers had ever noticed the slit, and all of them thought it was a scar, wincing and commenting on how terrible that wound must have been. Piccolo liked that Vegeta had noticed. Like Vegeta really saw him, really observed him with the intention of knowing him. 

“Yeah. Oh, fuck, it’s very sensitive. Yeah, you said it right. Sheath or tunnel works too.”

Vegeta bent and dragged his tongue up the slit.

It was like euphoric lightning. Piccolo gasped and arched toward the hot, wet touch of Vegeta’s tongue. “Fuck, Vegeta! Fuck!” Piccolo’s skin bloomed with soft, bioluminescent light.

Vegeta didn’t pull away, though he grunted with delight. He flattened his tongue against it and purred. Piccolo thought he would go through the roof it was so intense. He cried out and gripped Vegeta’s head with his thighs and his hands, clutching at him, unable to decide if he wanted Vegeta to keep doing exactly what he was doing or do more. Vegeta massaged with his tongue and combined with the vibration from his purring it was bliss. Pure, fiery, almost unbearable bliss.

Vegeta roughly scooped Piccolo’s ass into his hands and lifted Piccolo up and dragged him by his ass to the edge of the bed. Vegeta climbed off the bed and knelt between Piccolo’s legs. He paused to murmur, “I see the utility of a bed now,” before bowing his head again and now he pressed his teeth against it just a tiny amount as he pushed his tongue hard against the slit. “Mmm…it is…resistant? Will it hurt you if I push?”

Piccolo struggled to pull together a coherent string of words. Even Vegeta’s breath made Piccolo feel frenzied as it brushed over the nerves of his _theadur’s_ exterior. Before Piccolo could answer, Vegeta said, “No. It doesn’t. It feels good. It’s necessary for your sheath’s pleasure.” Vegeta had read his mind again. Piccolo didn’t know whether to be excited or a little scared, but thought was obliterated as Vegeta went back to work.

He used his teeth. Piccolo would have been horrified if someone had suggested teeth on his _theadur_ as anything but torture, but Vegeta moved his teeth, upper and lower, in a very tight up and down massaging motion on either end of Piccolo’s slit, while pushing harder and harder with his tongue to gain entrance. Piccolo honestly had no idea what would happen to him once Vegeta breached the tight opening, but he suspected he would come instantaneously, and harder than he ever had in his life, and then possibly just die of ecstasy as his heart exploded.

Vegeta apparently felt that level of pleasure was not enough, so he slid a hand up onto Piccolo’s dick, stroking him up and down rhythmically with the pulsing of his tongue. His hand was slick and Piccolo realized with a throaty groan, his back arching helplessly, that it was Vegeta’s pre-cum. Vegeta’s hand was slick from his own pre-cum and Piccolo loved it.

Vegeta’s relentless mouth throbbed against Piccolo and he forcefully thrust his tongue inside his _theadur_ at last. True to his imaginings, Piccolo couldn’t resist, and the pulsating, catastrophic muscular spasms of his _theadur’s_ orgasm shook his whole body, gripping and wringing Vegeta’s tongue as if to milk the cum out of it. The light under Piccolo’s skin glimmered even brighter, flickering in time with his spasms. Vegeta growled happily, purred more, and somehow managed to penetrate Piccolo deeper with his hot, searching tongue.

Piccolo curled up and tried to pull Vegeta up to kiss him, but Vegeta wasn’t done. He moaned into it, moving his jaw more until he released a powerful aftershock from somewhere deep inside Piccolo and he screamed, throwing his legs wide and using his feet on the edge of the bed to push toward Vegeta’s divine mouth. Still in the throes of his _theadur’s_ seemingly endless orgasm, Piccolo’s prick started to spurt too. Piccolo wailed, his ab muscles tightening as he thrust himself hard into Vegeta’s hand. Vegeta fingertips brushed over his tip, feeling the semen still pulsing out of Piccolo and he growled again.

After a long time trembling and twitching and gasping, Piccolo was finally spent and both climaxes relented. He felt shaky and exhausted. His glow dissipated as Vegeta pulled his mouth away, planting a few soft kisses on the slit, and moved his mouth up Piccolo’s body. To Piccolo’s surprise, Vegeta licked the cum off Piccolo’s belly and off his own hand. All of it. Mating with Vegeta was primal. Piccolo liked how animal they could be. He felt a little like they should be out in the wilderness together. Like they should bring down some prey after this.

Vegeta lifted Piccolo and laid him fully on the bed, kissing softly over his whole body, clear down to his toes, before coming back up to Piccolo’s mouth. He kissed and kissed Piccolo and Piccolo held him tightly, never wanting to be apart from him again. No one had ever touched Piccolo there, not on purpose anyway, and while Piccolo had masturbated in his _theadur_ , he hadn’t done it much, so the sensations had all been pretty new. Vegeta’s touch had been orders of magnitude more intense than anything he’d achieved on his own.

He tried to slow his breathing, but it was hard when Vegeta was still kissing him back into hazy, stupid levels of lust. Vegeta paused only long enough to say, “That was so hot, my heart. I’m eager to fuck you that way, when you’re ready.”

“Gods, Vegeta, you’re tireless. I’m going to have to do extra training to keep up with you in the bedroom.”

Vegeta kissed his nose. “Mmm…I want to be the only one to help you with that training. Did you enjoy that?”

Piccolo laughed and pulled Vegeta back down to kiss. “I think you know I enjoyed that, my prince. You just destroyed me. That was fucking fantastic.”

Vegeta grinned and burrowed into Piccolo’s armpit again, purring quietly on and off.

“Do you still want babies, Vegeta?”

Propping himself on his elbow, he brushed his fingertips over Piccolo’s brow and stroked his thumb along Piccolo’s cheek. “I do. But not if you don’t want them. You’d be the bearer. The decision has to be yours.”

“I want to be a father. Maybe not right away. But soon. I don’t know if it will take though, a Namek-Saiyan hybrid,” Piccolo swallowed hard, but he didn’t want to deprive Vegeta of something important to him, not after all he’d been through, so he forged ahead, “Are you sure you don’t want to find a human mate? That’s obviously a viable hybrid.”

Vegeta’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re my mate. I don’t want any other. Finding you…feeling this way…it’s an unexpected second chance for me. Undeserved, maybe, but I never want another. Never. Conceiving children is a benefit to being mates, not a requirement. I loved Raditz no less for our infertility. I only wished he didn’t suffer because of it. I hope that you won’t suffer if we’re unable to conceive.”

Piccolo shook his head. “I’m happy with you, Vegeta. You’re all I need.” Piccolo kissed Vegeta over onto his back. He sucked on that perfect jawline he’d been eyeballing even when Vegeta was threatening to kill him and the others. He nipped down the neck that he’d wanted to taste since the first time Vegeta threw his head back with maniacal laughter. Sucked on Vegeta’s earlobe until he was squirming, and only felt a little guilty that he’d learned about this little pleasure from Vegeta’s memories of Raditz doing it. He even dragged his fangs along Vegeta’s ear, just as Raditz had, and hoped that it wasn’t too evocative of his lost love for Vegeta to enjoy.

Vegeta shivered and purred louder, his hands running along Piccolo’s flanks. Piccolo grabbed lube from his bedside table and Vegeta looked excited but said nothing. Piccolo kissed down Vegeta’s hot, cut abdomen, and whispered, “Can I finger you? While I give you head?”

“What is ‘head?’ Aside from the obviously anatomical parts attached to my neck and dick?” Vegeta asked, looking more nervous than Piccolo had seen him.

“Sucking your cock.”

“Oh! Yes! I’ve never been fingered, but I’ll do my best,” Vegeta said, splaying his legs for Piccolo as he settled between Vegeta’s muscular thighs.

“I think you just need to relax and let me do _my_ best. Okay?” Piccolo kissed Vegeta’s quads and up onto his hips, following the curve of his obliques with his tongue, and his hands moved up and down along the inside of Vegeta’s thighs. It thrilled Piccolo that Vegeta was radiating nervous pleasure. Piccolo never imagined that it was possible to be so turned on just by licking someone’s body, but he was already hard and panting again. “Fuck, Vegeta, you’re so hot.”

“I believe your body temperature is higher than mine, dove,” Vegeta breathed.

Piccolo looked up, surprised that Vegeta hadn’t heard this colloquialism, but Vegeta’s little pleased smirk told Piccolo he had, and his comment was in jest. Piccolo lunged up and kissed his mouth. Vegeta held his face, smiling into the kiss, and Piccolo grinned too. He reached his hand down, teasing Vegeta’s cock with his fingertips. He caressed him, loving the stream of pre-cum that erupted out of his feisty Saiyan, and soon Vegeta writhed beneath him, his eyes closing involuntarily as he arched up toward Piccolo’s hand.

Piccolo bent and took Vegeta’s slick tip in his mouth. He groaned as more pre-cum spilled into his mouth. Twirling his tongue around Vegeta’s shaft, he plunged him deeper into his throat. Vegeta rolled his hips toward Piccolo, “My heart, your mouth is incredible…” Vegeta gasped.

Piccolo kept sucking Vegeta as he lubed his fingers, pulled off for a moment to drip some on Vegeta’s pucker. Vegeta’s eyes flew open and met Piccolo’s. Piccolo said, “Yeah? You sure it’s okay? We can wait—“

“I’m ready. I think. Yes. I’m ready,” Vegeta said, pulling his legs up farther.

Piccolo shifted to be able to reach Vegeta while he took Vegeta’s prick back in his mouth. Piccolo moved his fingertips lightly over Vegeta’s opening, feeling every tight ridge of skin, and making Vegeta pant as Piccolo played. He sucked more aggressively as he pushed lightly against Vegeta, not entering him yet, but mimicking the motion he would use. Vegeta’s ass was so tight that Piccolo feared he would hurt Vegeta. He definitely wanted Vegeta’s first experience as a receiver to be pleasant, so he kept his touch external, running two fingers in a ring around the edge of Vegeta’s bud.

“Fuck, Piccolo, I…I want it…I want you…inside me…” Vegeta groaned and at last Piccolo felt Vegeta relax.

He slid his middle finger in, just a little, just enough that he could wiggle it inside Vegeta to help him loosen up. Vegeta’s breath came in big, ragged heaves and Piccolo moaned on his dick, imagining the way Vegeta would breathe when Piccolo fucked him. Piccolo eased his finger deeper inside Vegeta, earning a series of breathy cries and Vegeta’s fingers were on his skull. He whispered, “Piccolo—stop sucking me. I’m going to come if you keep it up and I want…I want you to keep fingering me.”

Piccolo pulled off and looked up at Vegeta. “I can keep fingering you after you come, my prince. Maybe even make you come again, once I’m deeper inside you.”

Vegeta’s cheeks flushed. “Oh! Is that…is that okay? Are you sure?”

Piccolo’s laughter rumbled onto Vegeta’s cock as he took it back in his mouth, nodding a tiny amount. Vegeta bucked up toward his mouth, caressing Piccolo’s head, trailing his fingers over Piccolo’s antennae, which drove him wild. Piccolo moved his other hand up to twist Vegeta’s nipple and that pushed his Saiyan love over the edge. Piccolo was ready for the super-sized Saiyan cum this time, but there was none.

Vegeta groaned, “Do you…”

Piccolo nodded and pinched Vegeta’s nipple harder. Vegeta’s cock trembled and filled Piccolo’s mouth. It was another thing Piccolo never would have imagined liking, let alone craving. He had never minded swallowing some cum, but it certainly had never been something that turned him on or excited him. But feeling what he could make Vegeta’s body do made Piccolo’s pelvis feel heavy and hot. He nearly came as his hips thrust against the bed.

Piccolo used the clenching, gripping spasms of Vegeta’s ass to push his finger as deep as he could reach, brushing Vegeta’s prostate lightly, wanting to add another finger to bring Vegeta that much closer to Piccolo fucking him.

“Gods…” Vegeta breathed as Piccolo pulled off his prick and pulsed his finger inside Vegeta.

Piccolo kept skimming his fingertip over Vegeta’s p-spot as he started thrusting just a little, grateful for his long fingers as Vegeta writhed on him. Vegeta brain-smacked him with memories of Vegeta fingering Raditz, wondering if it had felt this way, wishing he had fingers as long as Piccolo’s, and a pretty wide open stream of thoughts that roughly translated as _holyshitIdidnotknowitwouldfeelthisgood_. Vegeta’s pleasure, and his surprise at how good it was, turned Piccolo on even more.

Piccolo decided to try a more direct, and potentially very useful form of communication with Vegeta. He’d only ever managed it a little with Gohan and Goku, gods, and other Nameks. But he tried to speak to Vegeta telepathically, _Can you hear this, Vegeta?_

“Oh! Yes! Let me try!” Vegeta cried and moaned, pushing himself harder onto Piccolo’s hand. A moment later, a tentative answer sounded in Piccolo’s mind, though it was almost a whisper, _I fucking love what you’re doing to me, dove_.

_And I fucking love doing it, my prince_. _Can I add another finger?_

Vegeta gasped, “Fuck, yes, fuck…I think…I think I’m almost there…”

Piccolo supposed maybe they ought to practice Vegeta’s telepathy when he didn’t have a lot of other things going on. Piccolo slid his finger mostly out and pressed his ring finger alongside it before slowly plunging back into Vegeta, making him groan a long screed of what Piccolo assumed was Saiyan. Piccolo pushed Vegeta’s spot more now as he thrust with two fingers, but Vegeta suddenly cried out and held Piccolo’s wrist tightly, keeping Piccolo deeply inside himself as he trembled and then Piccolo felt him come, his ass tightening enough that Piccolo wasn’t sure he could have removed his fingers even if he wanted to, which he most definitely did not. Vegeta’s ass coming on his fingers was divine.

“Come for me, my prince, release for me…” Piccolo growled and Vegeta shuddered hard and cum poured onto Vegeta’s belly. Vegeta made a noise that sounded almost like pain, all his ab muscles tensing and relaxing a few more times. Piccolo almost flinched at the intense tornado of bliss and guilt and self-loathing and lust and happiness that ripped out of Vegeta as apparently the orgasm had been pretty mind-blowing and Vegeta didn’t know what to do with that after decades of good sex with his true love. Piccolo left his fingers inside Vegeta as he sat up and kissed Vegeta, pressed his forehead to Vegeta’s to calm him. Piccolo could only think of how much he loved Vegeta, how much he enjoyed what they were doing together, and after a few minutes, the swirling cacophony of feelings quieted to a murmuring of ecstasy and affection.

Piccolo pulled back enough to look in Vegeta’s eyes and Vegeta said, “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“Brain-smacking you.”

“You didn’t, this was just a lot, but not as…concentrated…as it is sometimes. Don’t be sorry. Good? You okay if I pull out?”

Vegeta nodded, though he still felt shaky to Piccolo. Piccolo eased his fingers out of Vegeta, scattered kisses all over his chest, and made his way up to Vegeta’s mouth briefly before he hopped up to get a towel. Vegeta grabbed his wrist and Piccolo said, “I’ll be back so I can clean you off.” Piccolo bent and kissed him. Stayed and kissed him longer because it felt like Vegeta needed it. When Vegeta’s hold on his arm relaxed, he jogged to get a towel. Even though it was only seconds later when he returned, Vegeta was sound asleep. Piccolo delicately cleaned his Saiyan prince off, then found a clean, non-man-smelling blanket, and pulled it over both of them as he laid next to Vegeta, who rolled into Piccolo’s arms, purring softly, but not waking.


	7. Domestic Arrangements

Purring and nuzzling woke Piccolo. He grinned, but kept his eyes closed. Vegeta nipped along his jawline, and his powerful hand cruised over Piccolo’s torso. Vegeta climbed between Piccolo’s legs and their hips rolled eagerly together.

_Did you have a nice nap, dove? Sorry I was so tired. I…I was up most of the night._

Piccolo kissed Vegeta’s mouth, still unused to the sensation of kissing someone who was purring. _I did. Look at you, telepathic as a Namek after one nap._

Vegeta chortled and said, “I doubt that, but I think I have a feel for it now. I can think of a few applications for speaking without one’s mouth that I look forward to utilizing.”

“Great minds, my prince,” Piccolo stretched and trailed his claws down Vegeta’s back. “Would you like to actually train today? Or just keep up our training in the bedroom.”

Vegeta smirked. “Earth has made you soft, dove. It will make me soft too. I’ve so rarely been in beds, I forgot the appeal. Until I didn’t. The one at the woman’s house is pleasant. Not so large as this, but I suppose you require a larger bed than most humans.”

“Indeed,” Piccolo said, kissing Vegeta more. He felt sheepish about what he wanted to say, but decided to forge ahead since awkward honesty had worked for them so far. “Would you like to move here, to live with me instead of staying at Bulma’s?”

Vegeta purred louder. “Yes. I would like that. Very much. Will the woman be mad? I’m not entirely sure why she chose to take me in. Although I think maybe she wishes to fuck me, but that seems like an odd reason to house a brutal, alien warrior.”

“I don’t think she’ll be mad, even if she does want to fuck you. I think maybe Bulma’s just…friendly…like that. She’s fearless to the point of stupidity. Curious to the point of stupidity too. I imagine taking you in fell somewhere in those zones. But I want you with me every night. Every day.” More purring and Vegeta started sucking on his chest.

“I have a few clothes that she bestowed on me, but nothing more. It would be polite for me to inform her that I’m vacating the premises though? Correct?” Vegeta’s hands were driving Piccolo wild, brushing his nipples before gripping his hips, pulling Piccolo up against his very hard dick. It felt fantastic, despite the fact that it meant all of Vegeta’s leaden weight bore down on Piccolo enough that he wondered if Vegeta could break his ribs just by laying on him when he wasn’t prepared.

Piccolo said, “Yeah, you should definitely tell her you’re going. We can go over there now if you want. Be done with it. Return home to see what else we can get up to with our bodies?”

Vegeta pushed himself up on his arms, then sat back on his haunches. He pulled Piccolo onto his lap and their pricks were tight together, making Piccolo gasp. Piccolo curled down to kiss him and the Raditz-memory brain-smack petered out at the end, like Vegeta was getting better at controlling it. He murmured, “Sorry, dove…”

“Don’t be, Vegeta. I don’t mind. I don’t ever expect you to stop thinking of him and remembering him. Holy fuck, you two were together for so long, and it was so…perfect. Please don’t feel like you have to hide that, or suppress that, or…or not feel it. Please? Okay? You don’t have to stop loving him to love me.”

Vegeta’s purring stopped. Fear twisted in Piccolo’s belly that he’d insulted or upset Vegeta. But Vegeta yanked him down and kissed him harder. “How can you be this way? How? I thought…I thought you would be jealous,” Vegeta said. He held Piccolo’s ass in one hand, frotting with him harder, and Piccolo’s jaw in the other as he kissed him.

“I’m not jealous, Vegeta. Having lived it and felt it, I still can’t imagine how you’ve held together so well since it happened. But I took enough from you. I don’t want to take anything else from you. Ever. Except maybe your anal virginity, I would like to take that,” Piccolo said the last part with a little smirk.

Vegeta smirked back and began to purr again, though it was ragged as they thrust together. He brushed his lips over Piccolo’s, brought his hand up to the back of Piccolo’s skull and pulled Piccolo’s mouth down to his, murmuring against his lips, “Consider it yours, my heart.” Vegeta paused, purring and staring into Piccolo’s eyes. He kissed Piccolo deeply, his eyes on fire now, and he breathed, almost into Piccolo’s mouth, “I love you…”

Piccolo wrapped both his arms around Vegeta’s chest, squeezing them together, the ridges of their abs rubbing pleasantly on Piccolo’s cock, and from Vegeta’s gasps, he assumed it felt good for Vegeta too. He whispered back, bumping his forehead against Vegeta’s, “I love you, too, Vegeta. If we keep this up, I’m going to come all over you.”

“I like it. It’s novel, but I like it that we’re always getting cum everywhere. It’s a little like…like…”

“Like when you and Raditz sometimes came on each other?”

Vegeta nodded, wide-eyed and speechless.

“Yeah,” Piccolo said, smiling, “That’s what I was thinking too.”

Vegeta leaned his head back to kiss Piccolo as they ground against each other and soon they were both gasping and this time, Piccolo didn’t even have to give Vegeta permission to blow his load. He grinned at Piccolo and purred louder as his eyelids fell heavy and he soaked them both in his giz.

They took another bath before heading to Capsule Corp. Piccolo put on regular clothes. Vegeta’s mouth fell open and his eyes went wide. He stammered, “I…You…You look very attractive in these Earth clothes.”

Piccolo laughed and plunged his hand into Vegeta’s hair to clasp the top of his skull. Vegeta squawked in surprise when clothes materialized on his body. He touched them. Piccolo felt like Vegeta was a jeans and t-shirt man: a feather-thin black t-shirt and worn-looking jeans that hugged Vegeta’s ass and his delicious thighs. Black biker boots. “You look pretty hot yourself, Vegeta.”

Vegeta continued feeling his body under the clothes as he said, “What the…you’re…magic?”

“Only a little,” Piccolo said and bent to give Vegeta a kiss, determined that Vegeta would never have to rise up to meet his lips either. Raditz was a lot to live up to, but Piccolo didn’t mind. Vegeta’s memories of Raditz were like a guidebook to making Vegeta happy, and Piccolo wanted nothing more than to make Vegeta happy.

Bulma startled when they showed up together. “Hey, Piccolo! Hey, Vegeta! What are you two doing? You’re both dressed! And it’s the middle of the day but you’re not training. Do you have brain parasites?” She laughed.

Vegeta crossed his arms, surly as ever when he wasn’t purring and doing scandalous things with his tongue. He said, “I’ve taken Piccolo as my mate, woman, so I’ll be moving into his dwelling. I felt that I should inform you that I was leaving.”

Piccolo cracked up at Bulma’s face. Her jaw fell practically to her belly button. She screeched, “What?!?”

Vegeta hopped away from her, covering his ears. “Gods! Why do you make that noise? I thought you’d be relieved to be rid of me!”

Bulma said, “ _That_ is not what I’m trying to circle back to. Did you say you…you took _Piccolo_ as your _mate_? Does…does that mean what I think it means, Piccolo? You explain, Vegeta sounds fucking crazy sometimes.”

“Bulma, he’s an alien, he’s been here a few months, cut him some slack. What other languages do you speak?”

“Oh fine, explain because I want to hear your lovely voice, green man.”

Vegeta snapped, “He does have a lovely voice, but I sense you are using sarcasm. Don’t insult my mate!”

Piccolo said mentally, _Let me talk to her, don’t get all riled up._

Vegeta looked at him, smirked, and replied, _Later can I get all riled up?_

 _Later,_ I’m _going to get you all riled up_ , Piccolo said, grinning back.

Bulma interrupted, “What is happening right now? Why are you two looking at each other like that?”

“Vegeta and I are together now. He’s moving in with me. Stop freaking out.”

“You’re _gay_ , Piccolo?!” she asked, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

Piccolo rolled his eyes. Lots of people seemed to find this fact surprising. Most of them he chose not to inform that he was a hermaphrodite, even though he wanted to tell them. Piccolo questioned whether he even _could_ be straight, given that either way with humans (or Saiyans) he’d be fucking someone with similar reproductive capabilities. Earth was a strange planet. “Yes, Bulma, I sleep with men. Or I used to. Now I sleep with Vegeta. Just Vegeta.”

She turned to Vegeta, who Piccolo noticed looked at them both like they were mildly insane. Bulma spluttered, “And…and you…Vegeta? You’re gay?”

“Now I am. Now that I have Piccolo, though gay sounds more…jolly…than I typically feel, even in love…But yes, I’m happy. What does that have to do with men or women?”

Piccolo slid his hand onto Vegeta’s lower back and said, “Gay is an Earth term to describe men who fuck or are romantically involved with other men. Or women who fuck other women.”

“I thought it meant happy? Are Earthlings only allowed to fuck one gender?” Vegeta asked, bewildered.

“You and I can discuss Earth’s gender politics once we get home. Let’s get your stuff.”

Vegeta turned back to Bulma. “Thank you for your hospitality. I appreciate it and am glad I’ll no longer be a burden for you.”

Bulma turned to Piccolo and said, “I realize you may not have considered this, but can you afford to feed him? Do you know how much Saiyans eat?”

Piccolo grinned and said, “Bulma, I have more money than you. I’m the Demon King. I get tribute from all around the world. People have written TV shows and books based on me, and I get cuts from all of it. I’ll be fine. I’ll take care of him. Provide for him.”

“Holy shit! I can’t even believe what I’m hearing. You guys are really…like, really…a couple? Like you’re doing it?”

“Doing what?” Vegeta asked innocently.

“Fucking,” she whispered.

Piccolo intercepted that question as he felt Vegeta was about to divulge way more about their bedroom activities than Piccolo was comfortable with. “Yes, Bulma. We are. We will continue to do so.”

“So you’re just going? Just like that?” she said, looking more disappointed than Piccolo expected.

Piccolo and Vegeta looked at each other and Piccolo said, “Yes?”

“Will I see you again? You guys could move here, you know.”

“I have a house, Bulma. But we’ll come visit, if you want. You can come over to my place too. If you want.”

“I didn't even know you had a place. Gohan said you lived by a waterfall. It’d be nice to hang out when we’re not all about to die, so you better text me, Piccolo. I know you have a phone just like the humans you wanted to conquer.”

Vegeta’s face lit up. “Oh, did you wish to conquer Earth as well?”

Piccolo smirked, gave him a little kiss, and said, “Yeah, until I realized it wasn’t worth it. Oh, and that fucker Goku kicked my ass. Would definitely still kick my ass.”

Vegeta grinned. “It’s true, it’s not worth it, even without Kakarot here.”

Piccolo loved that Vegeta was radiating waves of adoration for Piccolo because he’d been a fucking villain. Now they were just two villains fucking. It was perfect. He bent and kissed Vegeta more as he chuckled. “Come on, my sweet villain, let’s get your stuff so we can go home. You’re hot in clothes, but hotter without.”

Bulma’s mouth still hung open. She watched them as they flew up to Vegeta’s room. As they emerged with a small duffle, Bulma called, “I’m working on a new training thing, come by in a few weeks and it should be ready, okay, Vegeta?”

Vegeta assented and within minutes, they were headed back to Piccolo’s place. Their place, now. The thought made Piccolo feel like his insides were made of clouds. As they flew, Piccolo said, “Hey, I should probably go to the store, I definitely do not have enough food to keep you currently.” Piccolo realized this made it sound a little like Vegeta was a pet…but Vegeta was so animalistic, that maybe that wasn't so far off base. Piccolo’s insides heated up and swished around now whenever he remembered the feeling of Vegeta’s mouth on him, purring, growling, biting.

Vegeta looked thoughtful. “Hmm…If it’s a burden, I’m happy to hunt for my food. That is what I’ve done most of my life. Nappa, Raditz, and I were rarely on base, but when we were, the food was awful, if I’m going to eat bad food, I’d rather it be freshly caught. Earth has large animals with substantial meat, so it won’t be like planets with mostly exoskeletal creatures, or worse, gelatinous creatures. Earth’s gelatinous creatures mostly seem to be small or aquatic. So I’ll be fine. I don’t mind hunting. I use chi to cook it. Most of the time. Well. Sometimes. It depends how hungry I am.”

Piccolo’s mind was filled with visions of Raditz and Vegeta and Nappa tearing various creatures, intelligent and less so, apart with their teeth, eating like a trio of bipedal hyenas and grooming like cats afterwards. He imagined humans coming upon Vegeta on a dinosaur carcass on the side of the road. Piccolo grinned as he said, “Yeah…I think it might be better for me to just go to the store.”

“What is a store?” Vegeta asked and then quickly continued, “I mean, I know it means a cache of things, but in this context, it seems as though you mean something specific. A specific place. Not just a cache of food you keep hidden.”

Piccolo said, “It’s a place where Earthlings buy food. Farmers and ranchers sell their food to a person who gathers it all in one building, so you can go and pick out all different things. Some of it is pretty heavily modified by middle-men, but some of that is delicious. Are you hungry now?”

Vegeta’s stomach rumbled loudly even as he said, “This ‘store’ explains how the woman had such an interesting and tasty variety of foods. She didn’t look like a farmer or a hunter, so I couldn’t discern how she came by so much food with neither those skills nor a mate. I’m fine now, not too hungry. Saiyans, despite our appetites, can also go a very long time without food. Or sleep. Or water. We don’t do it often, but we can when necessary.”

“I don’t want you to lightly starve because I don’t have Saiyan levels of food. I’ll probably buy another fridge too. I don’t think one fridge will cut it with you.”

“Ah! Yes. The cold food box. Ingenious. I don't remember much of my life prior to Frieza taking me, and we were never allowed in the kitchens on base. I assume they had similar technology, but I enjoy being able to access food whenever I wish. Can I go to this store with you?”

Piccolo wondered if it was possible to die from love. If his heart could run out of space and love would spill out until he didn’t have any organs or blood or anything but love, and he would just drop dead with a big dumb grin on his face, like the one he was currently wearing. He looked over at Vegeta as they touched down at Piccolo’s house. “You want to go with me?”

“Yes. It seems enjoyable to see all the Earth food options. I enjoy Earth’s food. Until you, it was my favorite part. I would like very much to go with you.”

Yes, Piccolo decided, it was possible to die from love. He bent and sucked on Vegeta’s lip, slipped his tongue inside his mouth. Vegeta responded enthusiastically, his own tongue tasting Piccolo. Piccolo lifted Vegeta up onto his hips and Vegeta looked surprised but happy. Piccolo carried him inside, tossing the duffle by the front door and kicking it shut behind himself. “Of course you can come with me, Vegeta, but I think I’m too hungry to go just now.”

Vegeta gave him a little smirk and his fingers whispered over Piccolo’s antennae, making Piccolo tremble. “Mmm…dove, I’m always hungry for you. I wish I’d been less…dishonest…with myself.” Vegeta’s face crumpled a little, but he shook it and looked happy, lusty, again, but Piccolo worried about Vegeta: he knew that Vegeta’s internal struggle wouldn’t just evaporate after a few orgasms.

“Hey,” Piccolo nuzzled Vegeta’s face up from where he looked down, pulses of shame rippling off him after every burst of love or happiness. Piccolo kissed him a little and whispered, “Let’s go to the store. Okay? I know this is hard for you. Even if it’s also fun.”

Vegeta canted his head to the side. He kissed the tip of Piccolo’s nose, looked into Piccolo’s eyes. “How do Nameks mate?”

“Once someone makes love to your _theadur_ , you’re bonded to them. They become your _atheanna_. It basically means mate or true love. Literally I think it translates more like ‘belonging to one’s _theadur,_ ’ but that sounds a little more slave-like than I want to feel about my partner. But it’s…it’s not like the way humans commit to each other. I think it’s more like tail-twining. Or heat-coupling. Do you think…” Piccolo felt ridiculous and insecure asking what he was about to ask, but he also had ulterior motives, so he continued, “Do you think you’d…you’d be with me if you still had your tail?”

Vegeta’s eyebrows shot up. “I…I don’t know. I don’t know if I would have behaved differently on Namek if bringing him back was still an option.”

“Vegeta…bringing him back _is_ still an option,” Piccolo said softly, not wanting it, but also wanting Vegeta to have it. Piccolo had his own mixed-up feelings about their relationship.

Vegeta recoiled. “He would be disgusted by me.”

“Would he? I’ve seen you thinking about if he were tailless, and you’d love him just the same, even if you mourned for his tail.”

“Raditz was a simpler man than I am. And more traditional. And…and even if he would accept me, it would be unfulfilling for him, with his tail, so I wouldn’t want to make him suffer that way.”

“But what if you could get your tail back? Would you bring him back then?”

Vegeta shook his head and said, sounding choked, “I don’t know. There’s no point in thinking about impossibilities anyway. The dragon balls only work for a year after a person’s death, correct?”

“I don't know, I’m not sure anyone has ever put that to the test,” Piccolo said.

“It doesn’t matter, dove, I'm with you now, and I’m happy. I…I still struggle. I…I…is that okay?”

“Of course, my prince. I just…if you want to bring him back, I’d help you find the dragon balls once they renew. Though Bulma will get them to send the Nameks to a new planet. Ugh, and probably to bring back her worthless friends that you killed.”

“No, I don’t want to bring him back to me as I am. And those Earthlings and that weird tiny clown were worthless. And I didn't technically kill any of them. Nappa and saibamen killed them.” Vegeta smirked at last and said, “But I _would_ have killed them.”

Piccolo chuckled and kissed Vegeta more as he whispered, “I love how murderous you are.”

Vegeta grinned against his lips and murmured, “It’s good to know you were as murderous as you feel—since you’ve been on the side of these soft weaklings, it was confusing. But you’re a spiritual Saiyan.” Piccolo carried Vegeta into his bedroom. Vegeta pressed his forehead to Piccolo’s and love bloomed into his mind like many colors of ink dripped in water. A fuzzy image of Vegeta wrapping his tail around Piccolo, coiling around his thigh as they made love, formed out of the swirling ink. Piccolo could feel the sensation of it through Vegeta’s mind and he gasped, got even harder somehow, and Vegeta held his jaw, kept flooding him with that intense feeling until Piccolo thought he might come in his jeans just from the mental tail caresses.

Vegeta pulled away and kissed Piccolo deeply, tenderly. Piccolo stopped to kiss the tears on Vegeta’s cheeks. Vegeta started purring softly after that and they laid in the bed just kissing for a long time, caressing each other, still clothed, occasionally bumping foreheads to send each other the mental equivalent of sweet nothings.

They did that until evening, and by then, Piccolo was fairly certain that he had died of love and he was just in heaven. He didn’t want it to end, even though he also did want it to end with all their clothes on the floor and parts of his body inside Vegeta and vice versa, but he could no longer ignore Vegeta's stomach, which had progressed from rumbling to roaring. Vegeta resisted when Piccolo moved to stand, straddling him and brushed his forehead against Piccolo’s antennae, something he had quickly discovered reduced Piccolo to panting and dry-humping, but also made him just gush love back at Vegeta, which Vegeta obviously enjoyed if the reflected wave of love and the increased volume of his purring were any indication.

Piccolo sent images of grocery store aisles, of the deli, the produce, and then he sent an image of takeout, something Vegeta probably hadn’t experienced since Bulma had bots and servants, so she likely didn’t do much cooking or ordering in. Vegeta’s eyes snapped open and he looked into Piccolo’s eyes, his purring stopped abruptly. Piccolo squirmed a little, unsure how this could have pissed Vegeta off.

“You’re not going to piss me off, dove, stop worrying about that.”

“Shit, I didn’t know you were hearing me worry about it.”

“You’re rather loud about it.”

“You can be a bit…touchy…at times.”

Vegeta ran his hands over Piccolo’s torso, squeezed his crotch a little. “You don’t seem to mind when I’m touchy…” he bent and kissed Piccolo deeply, purring again, and he said, “It’s just stunning to see so much food in one place. It never occurred to us to not obliterate the societies we purged. Though most of them were not as…civilized…as Earthlings, even if they had more advanced technology. I like this idea of making others prepare food and we exchange currency to take it. It seems more sustainable than murdering them. We would quickly run out of…restaurants? Is that the word?”

“Yeah, that's the word,” Piccolo said, grinning against Vegeta’s jawline as he kissed it. He didn’t know what Raditz’s favorite place on Vegeta was, but he knew Vegeta liked the turn of his jaw being kissed, and Piccolo adored that spot, it was so delicious. It was perfect. Vegeta purred more loudly as Piccolo sucked that excellent corner of Vegeta’s excellent body. “Okay, let’s go get you food before I get lost in kissing you.”

“I like when you get lost in kissing me, dove.”

“And I intend to lose myself completely once I’ve fed you, but I want you the rest of the night, nonstop, so let’s go get your other biological needs taken care of now,” Piccolo said, still kissing, still sucking. Piccolo wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to do anything but Vegeta now that he could do Vegeta.

“Very well. Let’s get to it. I am hungry. I also didn’t eat last night since I was too busy being angry with myself for letting you reach that level of desperation.”

Piccolo chuckled. “If I’d known you wouldn’t blast me, I would’ve just asked you out.”

“Asked me out?”

“It’s when you see if somebody wants to spend time together with the intention of becoming romantically involved.”

“Oh! Yes. That’s what I should have done.”

Vegeta pulled Piccolo to his feet. He scowled suddenly and brain-smacked Piccolo with a few memories of incinerating other Frieza Force soldiers that ogled Raditz. One that foolishly tried to rape Raditz in the showers, that one Vegeta took his time with. Fiery, burning jealousy and rage and violence all swirled around a nebulous concept of a human man, Vegeta’s rather elaborate ideas about just how he would hurt the generic man. Piccolo shook his head and said, “Hey, hey, settle down! Settle down, you’re smacking the shit out of me right now.”

Vegeta looked horrified. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta and cut him off. “Hey, we’re not going to see the guy I slept with last night. At least I hope not. But if we do, you can’t torture and murder him. Okay? He meant nothing to me. I was just trying to tame my dick so I didn’t risk your wrath by getting a hard-on, well, a more obvious hard-on, while we sparred. Okay? Settle down. I’m sorry about…about some of the shit that people tried with Raditz.”

Despite all the telepathy that had brought them together, Vegeta still always looked startled when Piccolo referred to a memory that Vegeta had unintentionally blasted Piccolo with. He searched Piccolo’s eyes and said, “You…the one that you were with last night…he…he means nothing to you?”

“Nothing. I had to fantasize about you to keep my erection.”

Vegeta’s eyes widened. “He couldn’t…sense…that you weren’t mentally with him?”

“No, I’ve never had the…uh…connection, the telepathic connection or the physical connection I have with you with anyone else. He was just…I just…I never thought you’d be with me. I was miserable and lonely and thought…I don’t know, I thought it would help. It didn’t. It made it worse. I really had no idea that you…that you felt anything other than hatred for me.”

“I suppose my outward behavior was confusing.”

“Your thoughts were confusing too, the ones you were broadcasting, even if you didn’t mean to do it.”

Vegeta’s pensive scowl returned. “Hmm…yes. Yes. My thoughts and feelings have been…hard to navigate. But…I can’t murder him? If we see him? I know what he smells like, so you can’t hide him from me.”

“I wouldn't try to hide anything from you, Vegeta. But no, you can't murder him.”

“Can I beat him?”

“No! It’s not his fault!”

“No, you’re right. It’s my own.”

“No, it’s nobody’s _fault_. It’s just…it just happened. It’s over. It was a mistake. You and I are together, maybe because of it, because it pushed you, so it’s okay, right? It’s all okay? I don’t smell like him anymore?”

"No, you smell like you,” Vegeta snuffled along Piccolo’s chest and neck and back down into his armpit, making Piccolo self-conscious about how much he’d been sweating while they made out and made love, Namek-fashion, if not physically. But Vegeta sighed and purred. “Mmm…and you smell so good, dove. Though later, I’m going to make you smell like me.”

Piccolo finally got Vegeta out of the house and they flew to the store. Piccolo wondered what Saiyan protocols for public touching were, but as soon as they landed, Vegeta had his strong hand possessively on Piccolo’s lower back, under his shirt. Piccolo also wondered how Vegeta would respond to the local homophobes. Piccolo’s past trysts had all been short-lived, discreet, and primarily relegated to the bedroom. He’d never had feelings beyond lust for any of them, so outside the gay bars that Piccolo used to pick them up, he never went out in public with men that he'd been romantically involved with. It was clear that homosexuality wasn’t even a concept amongst Saiyans, and not really amongst any of the other aliens Vegeta had been around either.

People were scared enough of Piccolo that he didn’t receive the vitriol that he knew other gay men experienced, but he saw a number of disapproving glances as he and Vegeta moved through the grocery store. Piccolo ignored them and instead chose to focus on how elated Vegeta was about everything. He kept turning to Piccolo with wide happy eyes, almost like a child, asking if he could have various things, quizzing Piccolo on all different produce and types of meat and what the various processed foods were. Vegeta was intrigued and excited about dairy as an entire category of foods, and he practically squealed about the baked goods that this market had in large quantities.

Piccolo found taking care of Vegeta extremely satisfying, which he wouldn’t have predicted about himself. Getting Vegeta anything he wanted was so gratifying. They talked about what they would order for dinner after they were done with their shopping and Vegeta was so giddy that Piccolo couldn’t stop smiling. Piccolo liked feeling like they were a tiny little family. He remembered the first time he’d had an inkling of the appeal of family as he’d trained Gohan, and how conflicted he’d felt about liking something so mundane. But by the time he sacrificed himself for Gohan, he ached for a tiny little family of his own, though at the time he never expected to actually have one. It had been a far-fetched dream.

Now he had it and he loved it. The fact that Vegeta, one of the terrors of the universe, was so thrilled to be picking out types of cheeses with Piccolo, like they'd lived in domestic harmony for years, thrilled Piccolo in turn. Vegeta had never had alcohol, so Piccolo picked out a few bottles of wine, some beer, and a couple types of hard liquor. It felt magical to give Vegeta, who had traveled all over the universe, so many firsts.

“What is that?” Vegeta asked, pointing.

“It’s a bear-claw.”

“A pastry with ground up bear toenails in it? That’s an intriguing choice. Why is it dusted with the sugar substance you spoke of? That seems an odd combination of sweet and savory.”

Piccolo chuckled and said, “I think it’s just named for the shape. It has no bear in it at all. I don’t think most people, in this country at least, eat bear anything. It’s filled with ground up almonds.”

“Oh! May I get one?” Vegeta said. Piccolo decided you could die from love more than once. Vegeta’s glee about food was contagious and adorable.

“You can get whatever you want, Vegeta. Get a box, put anything you want in there,” Piccolo said and helped Vegeta pick out pastries. Piccolo was a little surprised Vegeta didn’t purr the entire shopping trip.

They went home laden with large boxes their checker had found after Piccolo explained they would be carrying everything. She looked skeptical. Vegeta ended up carrying everything, swatting Piccolo’s hands away as he tried to take some of the huge boxes.The checker’s eyes bugged out and her mouth hung open.

“No! I’ll carry. It’s enough that you purchased these things for me. I suppose I should find a vocation on this planet to acquire Earth currency. Does Earth have mercenaries?”

“It does, but you don’t need to do that. I have plenty of currency,” Piccolo said, unable to stop chuckling at Vegeta’s turns of phrase. He bent and kissed Vegeta’s cheek as they walked out of the store. He hoped it wouldn’t piss Vegeta off.

“Only that you didn’t kiss my lips, dove,” Vegeta said, arching an eyebrow in challenge to Piccolo.

Piccolo swooped low and gave Vegeta a very thorough kiss on his mouth. He felt Vegeta stifle his purring. Piccolo whispered, “Is purring a private thing?”

Vegeta was aghast, “Of course it’s a private thing!”

Piccolo held up his hands. “How would I know? I don’t purr! Earthlings don’t purr! Cats purr and they just do it when they’re happy about whatever, wherever.”

“Oh yes, like the small creature at the woman’s place. It did purr when I scratched it. I thought I had done something perverse. But it also made me conclude that Earth creatures could purr.”

“No, nothing perverse, but cats are pretty much the only creatures that I know of that purr. Besides Saiyans, apparently. Though Gohan never purred. But I never did anything that might make him purr.”

“He does seem to be on a much slower development timetable than pureblooded Saiyans, so it would be strange if you’d made him purr. When do human young achieve sexual maturity?”

“Well…it’s pretty variable, but most are physically mature by their late teens, but some are capable of reproducing earlier, but it’s not a good idea. Youthful stupidity persists into their twenties.”

Vegeta cackled, “Do they grow out of it? In my experience it persists indefinitely.”

“Goku’s not human.”

Vegeta met Piccolo’s eye with a little grin and said, “Ha! But he is an idiot! But I was referring to the Earthlings Nappa fought.”

“Yeah, they’re all idiots,” Piccolo said and took another kiss from Vegeta, meeting his lips before his heels came off the ground.

They flew their bounty home and Piccolo was surprised to find a huge box on his front porch. It had a note from Bulma that said: _Consider this a housewarming gift since I didn't know you had a house until today._

Vegeta bustled around the kitchen and told Piccolo not to tell him where things belonged, that he wanted to figure it out on his own. Piccolo left him to it and unboxed what turned out to be a huge fridge-freezer combo that was clearly designed for those strange families that had excessive offspring. But it would be perfect for one Saiyan. Maybe with a couple Saiyan babies, but they’d need another couple fridges once their children were eating solid food. If they could have children.

Piccolo surveyed his kitchen. There was no room for the new appliance. Piccolo’s magic was actually an ability to elaborately reorder atoms and molecules at will. Simple tasks like clothing required almost no energy, but larger things, like building a house, creating a washing machine after studying schematics online, that sort of thing, required concentration. He said to Vegeta. “Come on out of the kitchen for a minute, my prince.”

“Why? I like this! I like this kitchen. You have equipment for cooking food and combining it in unique ways. I’m very excited. I also discovered these little jars you have filled with fragrant delights—“

“Spices and herbs.”

“Ah, well, are they accoutrements for cooking?”

“Yeah, they make things taste better.”

Vegeta rubbed his hands together like an old-time movie villain and said, “I look forward to spicing things.”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta, pulling their bodies tightly together. He delved into Vegeta’s mouth, his own lust and desire swamping him as a wave of Vegeta’s inundated him. He murmured, “I have to focus for a minute, I’m going to remodel our kitchen to accommodate the giant new fridge Bulma sent us.”

“What—“

“Shh…You'll see.” Piccolo held Vegeta tucked against his side, even though it made his task more difficult to feel the ridges of Vegeta’s abs under his fingertips. It kept Vegeta from interfering as Piccolo closed his eyes and concentrated on the new structure he wanted for the kitchen. The walls began to shift and expand, punching out farther onto Piccolo’s yard until it had doubled in size with a much larger pantry, a nice space for the new fridge and a big island so he could cook with Vegeta.

“Gods…you are magic…” Vegeta whispered, as the last of Piccolo’s changes solidified. Once Piccolo opened his eyes again, Vegeta asked, “Can you not make food?”

“I can, but it never tastes quite right. So I prefer to buy it. I still buy lots of stuff because this is pretty tiring. This scale of thing, in particular, wears me out. Makes my brain and my antennae hurt.”

“Yes, I can feel your chi funneling out of them as you do it. You did this for me? Because of my appetite? Do you eat like the humans?”

“More like them, yes, though I’m significantly larger than most humans and burn a lot more calories thanks to training, but yes, this is for you. This is your home now, it should work for you. If there’s other stuff you want changed, I can do it. Not right now. But over time.”

“You don’t need to do anything for me, dove.”

“But I would do anything for you,” Piccolo said, bending low to kiss his little mate, and wrapped his arm around Vegeta’s waist to pick him up.

They finished putting everything away and by the time they were done, their food had come. They ate and Piccolo loved watching Vegeta try every new dish, marveling at the flavor. After the first, he pulled out all Piccolo’s spices and tried to make sense of what was in each dish. He sniffed and chewed and hummed and ate and smelled. Piccolo loved watching how entranced Vegeta was by this new experience. It was interesting that it was one of the first intense experiences Vegeta had had with Piccolo that hadn’t resulted in a brain-smack tornado for Piccolo. Or maybe Piccolo’s brain was just too tired to pick it up. The day, beyond the effort of the remodel, was catching up with him.

“You look tired, dove,” Vegeta whispered as he started to clean up. He kissed both sides of Piccolo’s neck as he stood behind him while Piccolo stayed seated. “Shall we retire? Now that you’ve fed your Saiyan?”

“Yeah,” Piccolo held Vegeta’s head gently, turned into his mouth and kissed him before he stood. “Come on, my prince, time to put your Namek to bed.”


	8. Doubt

By the third week they’d been together, Piccolo was getting antsy that Vegeta hadn’t fucked him in his ass or his _theadur_. Vegeta also seemed reluctant to be fucked, so Piccolo hadn’t fucked him either. A low-level panic had started rising in Piccolo that maybe Vegeta had changed his mind now that they were spending more time together.

It wasn’t as though they weren’t sexually satisfied: they were sucking each other off multiple times per day, they had rimmed back and forth, fingered each other like there was no other use for hands, besides hand-jobs, and Vegeta tended to Piccolo’s _theadur’s_ pleasure enthusiastically. Piccolo regularly got whipped up in the frenzy of Vegeta’s orgasms and pleasure along with his own, and Vegeta said he occasionally had the same heady experience. No, sexual satisfaction wasn't what worried Piccolo. If anything, he wondered if maybe they were having so much fun that Vegeta didn’t feel any desire to fuck him.

Piccolo couldn’t figure out what the hang-up was, but he also feared that it might be some as yet unsurfaced aspect of Vegeta’s relationship with Raditz. Maybe just because they’d had years of making out and heavy petting before they fucked? Piccolo really didn't know. After their first intense day together, Piccolo had thought every orifice either of them had would be thoroughly fucked within twenty-four hours. It made him self-conscious, like maybe he wasn't fuckable: something he'd never really thought about as a lifelong top, especially since bottoming had never crossed his mind with any of his previous partners.

“Dove? Why are you panicking?” Vegeta asked, startling Piccolo. He thought Vegeta was drowsing on his chest since Vegeta purred in the sleepy rhythm he had when post-orgasmically dozing.

“Huh? What?” Piccolo said, stupidly feigning ignorance.

“Your panic is audible, but I don’t know why. Are you unhappy?” Vegeta pushed himself up to look down at Piccolo.

Piccolo poked around in Vegeta’s mood, which Vegeta allowed, their eyes locked. Vegeta seemed deeply content, though the quiet rumbling of ever-present grief was all around the edges. But there was no change in the warm, pulsing love and adulation that was also layered over everything. “Have out with it, Piccolo, I keep telling you that I’m not going to get pissed at my mate for communicating with me. Someday you will adjust to that.”

Piccolo smirked and pulled Vegeta down for a kiss. “I hope you at least understand _why_ I have that belief.”

Vegeta chortled against Piccolo’s lips and whispered, “I’ll never live down my moody villainy, will I?”

“Mmm…you’ve made a good start,” Piccolo said, kissed Vegeta a little more before he stammered, despite Vegeta’s reassurances, “I, uh, I guess…Well…Um…”

“Dove, do you want to just press your forehead to mine? Or do you want to spit it out?” Vegeta asked, still smirking, and he caressed Piccolo’s face, traced his bottom lip with his thumb. “I can’t get back to kissing you until you’re done speaking.”

“Do you, um, do you still want to have sex with me? In any configuration?” Piccolo asked, and his heart thundered. His throat tightened and he realized with horror that he was almost in tears he was so nervous about what Vegeta might say.

“I want to have sex with you in _all_ possible configurations, my heart. This is what’s been, hmm…how does your brain put it…this is what you’ve been ‘freaking out’ about? You’ve been worried that I don't want to fuck you?” Vegeta said, his brows furrowed deeply.

“Yeah…not that I haven’t been having fun…but…I thought, I don’t know, I thought…”

“I’ve been enjoying our physical relationship, as you know, but you’re still very tight when I finger you. And while I love you fingering me, I’m not quite ready for you to fuck me, as you are larger than me in both body and prick. It’s also a bit…strange…for me to imagine being seeded. And I thought you wanted to wait on your _theadur_ until after we had anal. That’s the only reason I haven’t. As you have noted in the past, I’m not…subtle. If something is wrong or I want something, I’ll tell you. I promise, dove.”

“So…if I want you to fuck me, you’d fuck me?”

Vegeta searched his face, held his eyes, “You’re not worried that it will hurt? Because I’m worried it will hurt. Raditz and I engaged in quite a lot of play before we ever got to fucking. You and I have only had a few weeks together.”

“I probably need a little warm-up, obviously, I don't want you to jam your dick in me without some foreplay, but I’m ready, Vegeta. I want you.”

Vegeta moved lithely above him and Piccolo was reminded, not for the first time, of a big cat, maybe a lion, given Vegeta’s exuberant mane of hair. He kissed up the split in Piccolo’s ab muscles and said, “It makes me nervous. I don’t want to cause you pain. Well. Maybe while training. But never like this, never in the bedroom.”

“I’m fine. Please?”

“Why the rush?”

“What? Rush? Seriously? I’ve wanted you for months.”

“You Earthlings are strange. But of course I’ll fuck you, dove. But it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong if we wait. It just means neither of us has ever taken it in the ass, and that it’s okay to work up to that. Especially since neither of us lubricates.”

“We have lube, Vegeta.”

“It’s not the same. You know it isn’t. You’ve seen my memories, felt my memories—“

Piccolo cut Vegeta off and rolled Vegeta onto his back, straddling the smaller, bizarrely heavier man. His mate. He bent low and kissed Vegeta savagely, pinned his arms above his head. “Fine, I want you to fuck me because I’m worried you’ll leave me. I want to feel like you’re attached to me somehow. Mated. I don't feel mated to you without that.”

Vegeta flipped him back easily, pinning Piccolo’s hands under his knees. He kissed Piccolo and sucked down his neck. “See, now we’re getting somewhere. I knew there was something underneath, but I could never make it past that electric storm of panic.”

“It’s weird that you’re better at telepathy than me, Vegeta,” Piccolo said, struggling half-heartedly to get his hands free. Vegeta was fully hard now, his tip dripping on Piccolo’s belly.

“You are my mate. I wouldn’t do any of what I’ve done if that weren’t the case. I would have twined my tail with your leg or arm or something if I had it, but I don’t. But you’re mine. I love you. Will fucking you really quiet this cacophony of panic and fear? Will it make you less insecure?”

“I think so?”

“That is not a very convincing answer, dove. I want our first time to be perfect, not painful. Not rushed. Not out of misplaced worry.”

“I don’t know, Vegeta. I…I’ve never…I don’t know. I’ve never been in love with someone. And I just want you to be happy, and I freak out thinking I’m keeping you from actually—“

Vegeta cut him off, kissing him deeply before pushing their foreheads together. They hadn’t been doing much of that since their first day together and Piccolo wondered if maybe that was the real source of his insecurity and his concern. Maybe being Namek meant he felt bereft without that. Namek mates always touched foreheads before they slept at the very least, but usually more often. It was akin to how the humans kissed, though Nameks kissed too. But it was a source of intimacy and connection. Of love.

Vegeta pushed back on his worry, poured his love into Piccolo. Poured his sexual feelings into Piccolo, which were so intense that Piccolo came helplessly, even though Vegeta wasn’t even touching his dick. He sent his own aching lust back into Vegeta and the response was the same, and he sent a second aggressive longing for Vegeta's actual cum and Vegeta released on him with a big, shuddering gasp. They breathed heavily in unison, their foreheads still together, love still sloshing back and forth between them and Piccolo sharing his fears and Vegeta sharing his concerns and Piccolo felt at ease by the time Vegeta gently pulled away, sucking his top lip, then his bottom before pressing their mouths together more, sliding his tongue alongside Piccolo’s.

Piccolo was strangely exhausted by their mental exchange; the way he was exhausted after they'd had a particularly exuberant bout of messing around. Vegeta held Piccolo’s jaw on both sides and kissed him more before dragging his own jaw along Piccolo’s. Piccolo knew Vegeta was marking him, could smell the warm, subtle odor of Vegeta’s marking glands, a more concentrated version of Vegeta’s skin smell. He couldn’t help the grin that broke on his face as Vegeta moved down onto the knob of each of Piccolo’s shoulders, purring loudly.

Vegeta reached for a towel, cleaned them off, then kissed back down Piccolo’s belly to mark his hips, his jaw tracing the line of Piccolo’s obliques, the line where his leg joined his hip. Piccolo laughed and said, “My prince, who do you think is going to be close enough to me to smell you?”

Vegeta blinked up at him from under heavy eyelids. “Hmm?”

“Are you even aware you’re marking me?”

“Oh! No, I guess I wasn’t. It…hmm…it’s not just for marking territory. It’s…it’s how Saiyans—real Saiyans, not that fucking sad-sack Kakarot—it’s one of the ways we express affection. I can’t believe Nameks and humans don't scent mark. Don’t you feel more loved with my scent on you, dove?”

Piccolo considered this while Vegeta purred and rubbed on him more before finally settling on Piccolo’s side so that Piccolo didn’t have to bear his full weight, Vegeta’s leg between Piccolo’s. Piccolo did feel more connected to Vegeta after what they'd just done, but he didn't know whether the Namek mind-kiss (or perhaps mind-fuck in this case) or the marking was the source of his relief and contentment.

“Both, dove. I’ll be better about the Namek thing—what's the Namek word for it?”

Piccolo always had to search hard for Namek words, having been born and raised on Earth. His Namek, which he had now, was all in the part of him that was Nail. He reached into that part of his mind and then said, “ _Peluwsa_. I think. I think you would say that we shared _peluwsa_. Or maybe we _peluwsaterna_. I think that's the verb form. My Namek is shoddy. Second-hand. Nail only had one lover with whom he shared _peluwsa_ , so it’s a blurry part of his vocabulary.”

“Nail?” Vegeta said and his purring halted abruptly, “That warrior on Namek? He taught you how to speak Namek?”

Piccolo, who always felt himself so changed, a new hybrid of Piccolo and Nail, realized that maybe that wasn’t as clear and present in his mind as he assumed. He shifted to look down at Vegeta. “On Namek, he had fought Frieza, delayed Frieza, probably giving you and the others valuable time for Goku to heal, for Dende to arrive with the words to awaken Porunga. Nail was almost dead, and I never considered that all the Nameks would be brought back to life, nor did he, so he asked me to merge with him. To take his strength and power and wisdom and absorb him. It’s a thing Nameks can do—we can integrate another Namek into our consciousness and body. I was reluctant, but willing to do anything to make myself powerful enough to fight Frieza. It made no difference, obviously, but—“

Vegeta sat up suddenly. His face suggested he was having his own little freak out. “That is why you were different. I knew you were much, much more powerful than you’d been on Earth, but that wasn’t everything. When I…when I started to have feelings, it was…It was some consolation that you were not exactly the man that killed my Raditz. But I don’t…I don’t understand how—”

Piccolo pulled Vegeta down to his forehead again and showed him. Vegeta’s reaction was a jumbled mix of confusion about loving Piccolo when he was two men and elation that he was not truly the man who killed Raditz and an amusing amount of disappointment that Piccolo wasn’t the pure, unadulterated villain he had been at one point in his life. As Vegeta separated from him, Piccolo kissed him and whispered, “I’m still a villain, I promise.”

Vegeta chuckled and kissed Piccolo more. He held Piccolo’s jaw more and said, “I love you. Don’t worry about that. Yes? No more worrying?” Vegeta rubbed their jaws together. Piccolo smiled. Vegeta did this all the time, and Piccolo had never thought much about it, but it was in so many of the memories he’d seen of Vegeta and Raditz, Raditz always the recipient. Piccolo realized that it must be the seeder who did the marking. And now that he thought about it more, it did make him feel relaxed and happy, but since Vegeta almost always did it after they’d done something sexual, Piccolo associated those feelings with the sex acts, not the marking.

“It’s always both, my heart. Don’t doubt my love. Or question whether you deserve happiness. Because you do. Let me give it to you. But don’t rush things. There’s no need to rush. We have a lifetime ahead of us.”

Piccolo pushed Vegeta back onto his back and moved his mouth down Vegeta’s body, loving every ridge of muscle, every scar, every wiry tendon. Vegeta’s fingers dragged lightly over his skull as Piccolo sucked his way over Vegeta’s torso. Piccolo murmured against Vegeta’s skin, “Did you and Raditz ever use toys?”

“Aren’t toys for children? Are Earthlings that juvenile?” Vegeta asked, looking like this was not at all a surprise.

Piccolo stored up a small brain-smack of sex toys and their uses on Piccolo’s body and Vegeta's and whipped it at Vegeta. Vegeta still yelped whenever Piccolo brain-smacked him, but Piccolo did it anyway, telling Vegeta that it was the flip side of being so good at eavesdropping on Piccolo’s thoughts and feelings. After he’d recovered, Vegeta said in a low growling voice, “Oh fuck me…no…I didn’t…no…we…no. We spent most of our life in the field. We, well, we just had our bodies. I did not know people used such things.”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta’s belly button suggestively until Vegeta used his legs to shift Piccolo around so he could at least rub himself on Piccolo’s chest and neck while he did that. Piccolo murmured, “Would you like to? It’s fine if it would be weird for you. But…if you want to get my ass ready to take your big fucking cock, that might be the way to go. Your ass, too, if you're feeling very adventurous.”

Vegeta purred loudly now and rolled his hips against Piccolo, who gave in to Vegeta’s intoxicating desire and started licking and sucking Vegeta’s prick, though he kept it playful. He wasn’t about to get Vegeta off until he'd gotten an answer about the sex toys. Vegeta panted and gasped Piccolo’s name as Piccolo progressed from lightly swirling his tongue around Vegeta’s head to running his head deeper into Piccolo’s mouth while using his hand to keep his tip pressed against the ridges on the roof of his mouth.

“I wouldn’t even know how…or what…”

Piccolo’s mouth was busy so he said, _You’re a fast learner, Vegeta. If you can learn telepathy in a couple hours, I’m sure you can master a butt plug, a dildo, and maybe some anal beads if you're feeling really advanced._

Vegeta chuckled, “Don’t laugh at me…You Earthlings are a bunch of deviants, getting your cum everywhere and putting toys in your asses—“

Piccolo took Vegeta deep in his throat now. _We have ones that vibrate, nipple clamps, cock rings…It all depends how deviant you want to get with me, my prince._

“Fuck, dove…I can’t think…You’re making it…Fuck…fuck…fuck…do you want my cum?”

 _I always want your cum, Vegeta, you know that._

“So deviant…” Vegeta breathed, but Piccolo could hear his smile.

_Be deviant with me, my prince, think how hot this would be with a butt plug inside you. A vibrating butt plug. If you’re not going to fuck me, can’t we play more?_

“I…oh fuck…Fuck, Piccolo!” Vegeta came hard, curling up off the bed and gently tugging Piccolo’s antennae in a way that almost made Piccolo come on the bed.

Piccolo waited for Vegeta to stop twitching before he eased his cock out of his mouth. He laid his head sideways on Vegeta’s hip to look up at him, his feet dangling off the end of the bed. He grinned up at Vegeta, and said aloud, “Well, my prince, should I start looking for fun stuff online? Or you gonna fuck me? Or just keep fingering me until I beg you to fuck me? Hmm…What do you think?”

“Mmm…nothing, at the moment, you obliterated all thought with your expert mouth. Sweet gods, dove, you suck good dick.”

Piccolo listened to Vegeta’s blood pulsing as he laid on his hip. Vegeta’s purring got softer, more sleepy. Piccolo crawled up and laid on Vegeta’s chest, which still amused him, that it was less of a burden for him to lay on Vegeta than the other way around, but because of their relative sizes, then Piccolo felt like an awkward blanket. Piccolo was a couple degrees warmer than Vegeta, and they both enjoyed the temperature differential despite the fact that Vegeta inevitably got too hot. Vegeta never said anything, but would sweat like he had a fever instead of a Namek mate.

Piccolo rolled them both over and wheezed as he took Vegeta’s whole weight on his sternum. He gasped out, “Should we train at all today?” took a heaving breath and continued, “Or continue behaving like a couple of cats in heat, fucking and sleeping.”

Vegeta slurred, half-asleep, “You have often compared me to a cat. But I don’t go into heat. Do Nameks have heats?”

“Nope. Which is why your cum-stopping ability is going to be so nice. Normally Nameks can’t enjoy their _theadurs_ unless they want to breed because pulling out is apparently awful and they don’t care for condoms.”

“Mmm…How do you make me so sleepy all the time?” Vegeta murmured, kissing Piccolo’s chest as he shifted so Piccolo could breathe without it being a workout. “I think…I think that I have no motivation to train when I can lay in bed with you, dove. You’ve broken my warrior’s spirit.”

“It was a mutually destructive act, my prince. Training seems like a foolish waste of time now that I’ve got you naked in my arms.”

Vegeta purred more loudly and squeezed Piccolo. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

* * *

Piccolo spent the afternoon introducing Vegeta to the frivolity of the internet and sex toys. It seemed that the universal appeal of amusing cat videos was actually universal. Piccolo didn’t think he’d ever heard Vegeta laugh so much total, in all their time together, as he did during one cat video. It was delightful.

Piccolo also thoroughly enjoyed making Vegeta blush like a school girl with every single item, lubes included, on the various websites Piccolo perused with his new mate. Vegeta’s initial flurry of paranoia that swamped Piccolo was that purchasing toys meant Vegeta was failing Piccolo somehow. That he wasn’t doing something correctly. Piccolo tipped Vegeta’s chin toward him where they cuddled under his laptop. “Hey. Stop freaking out. That isn’t what this is.” Piccolo laid his forehead against Vegeta and sent all his excitement and arousal and joy at trying something new because he’d never been intimate enough with anyone to do this.

Vegeta pulled away and said, “You’re sure?”

“I want to fuck, yes, that is the only thing we're missing. But the rest is just to have fun. Just because we can. Because I like experimenting with you. Okay?”

Piccolo felt Vegeta struggling to master himself. Piccolo closed the toy website, deciding it wasn't worth stressing his mate. Vegeta looked questioningly at him. “Now they just show up?”

“No, I was just showing you. I didn’t buy anything. There’s no rush, right?”

Vegeta’s worries became a snake eating its own tail, so Piccolo pulled up some porn, figuring that Vegeta had probably never seen porn, given his life as a slave mercenary. Vegeta’s jaw dropped at Piccolo maximized the window. “Who allowed you to record this?!” he croaked.

Piccolo chuckled, kissing Vegeta’s neck. “They recorded it. They’re a couple, just like us. They filmed themselves fucking probably initially for their own amusement and then posted it online. It found its way onto a porn site. Have you ever seen porn?”

Vegeta’s head shake was slow, Piccolo was wrapped around him from behind. His hands came off his keyboard and squeezed Vegeta. His Saiyan prince’s eyes were locked on the screen where the two attractive, jacked men fucked, speaking breathily to one another. Piccolo let his hands trail down Vegeta’s torso until they found his hard-on. Vegeta turned and brain-smacked Piccolo with a powerful wave of longing for the simplicity of Raditz. Then he shook his head and apologized, bursting into tears.

Piccolo shut his computer and held Vegeta. “Hey. Hey. It’s okay. Don’t be sorry. It’s okay, Vegeta. Hey. Shh…” Piccolo pressed his forehead to Vegeta's again and tried to push away all Vegeta’s self-loathing and confusion and feelings of sudden inadequacy. Piccolo sent the way that he wanted to share everything with Vegeta, but only if Vegeta was comfortable, that it didn’t matter even a little to Piccolo if they stuck to vanilla sex the rest of their lives.

Vegeta curled into him, pulling his head away, and wrapped his arms around Piccolo’s waist as he curled into a ball. Piccolo stroked his back and Vegeta said, “I…I…don’t know what I want. It’s all very new. It’s a lot to adjust to just…just being with someone else. Maybe…maybe after I’ve learned how to please you? And after we’ve both tried receiving. I don’t know, Piccolo. I'm sorry.”

Piccolo bent over him, kissing his body where he could reach. “Vegeta, I don’t care about any of that. I was just putting ideas out there because you don't want to have sex.” Vegeta stiffened. “It’s okay, it really is. I get it if that’s…harder…for you, after everything. But if I suggest stuff, it's not because I’m not happy. It’s because I am. I would never feel comfortable asking anybody else about this stuff. Only you. But you have to be honest with me. Where had you tucked that? I hadn’t seen that you weren’t emotionally ready to have sex until this brain-smack, and I’ve done a couple deep-dives.”

“I don’t know. I wasn't deliberately keeping it from you, dove. I…I want to be mates. And…and I do want to fuck, but I also feel…so shitty about it. My brain and my heart and my body can’t seem to agree on any given day. I miss him so much sometimes that I feel like a fucking monster for loving you so much at the same time. If…if I fuck you, it feels like I'm really moving on. Like I’m really saying that I _can_ live without him. Which feels like a betrayal of him and his memory. I’m sorry, I don't mean to jerk you around,” Vegeta sounded defeated in a way that he hadn’t since the first day they were together.

Piccolo unfurled him, pulled him up so Vegeta sat astride his lap, and just hugged him. Kissed his cheek and hugged him more. He didn’t know what to say to that, knowing that sometimes Vegeta spoke to figure things out for himself. He pushed his face into Piccolo’s neck and Piccolo felt him cry more.

“I’ll always love you, Vegeta. You don’t have to rush. You don't have to be ready,” Piccolo said into Vegeta’s hair. “And I know you feel shitty, but you _can_ move on and that’s what he’d want. But just because he’d want it doesn’t mean you have to hurry. I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

Vegeta curled tighter against him and whispered, “That’s what he said, too.”


	9. Consummation

Piccolo wished he had someone to share his newfound love with. He loved sharing everything with Vegeta, but he wished he had a friend to whom he could gush _about_ Vegeta. His life with Vegeta felt gush-worthy, even if they weren’t fucking. Nothing had really changed after the night Vegeta cried and confessed, albeit only via brain-smack, that he wasn't ready to have sex. That Raditz’s death was still too near.

Vegeta had taken to the kitchen like he was on a reality TV show. He loved cooking. He loved eating with Piccolo and talking about what he’d done. They had gone back to training, after over a month of pretty much only leaving their bedroom for food. Now they trained in the mornings, then usually returned home to eat and mess around, then back out to train until dinner.

Evenings with Vegeta were a trip. Piccolo had lived alone his entire life, so having someone suddenly around was strange, but delightful. Vegeta was a surprisingly voracious reader and when Piccolo introduced him to the library, he thought Vegeta might finally fuck him right there in the stacks. But Vegeta contented himself with a very aggressive, fast blow job. Piccolo imagined his cheeks had never been redder in his life.

Piccolo often meditated in the evenings, but Vegeta, bizarrely, had discovered and loved Pinterest, of all things. After a few months together he had sheepishly asked Piccolo if he might use some currency. Piccolo found it adorable that Vegeta continued to use the word “currency” instead of money, zeni, or cash. So he never corrected Vegeta and vowed to kill anyone who did. Not that most humans were in the business of speaking to Vegeta at all, let alone correcting him. Vegeta was still his old caustic, cutting self with almost everyone he interacted with, Piccolo being the jarring exception. Vegeta was sometimes embarrassingly sweet to Piccolo in public, earning either puppy-dog “aws”or horror from the more homophobic crowd, or if the witness happened to be someone whose head Vegeta had just bitten off, a look of complete befuddlement.

After Piccolo bestowed a credit card on Vegeta, so he could use as much currency as he wished, Vegeta began appearing with various craft accoutrements in the evenings and delighting in his many “Pinterest fails.” One evening, while he watched TV with Piccolo, curled against him knitting, Piccolo said, “I confess that I’m surprised you’ve taken to crafting. I did not see that coming.”

“It’s like an entire category of things to do that are just for pleasure and creation and leisure. I have never been allowed any of those things, with the exception of pleasure with my mates. It feels like I’m, how do you say it—thumbing my nose?—at Frieza. At what he made me. Obviously I still enjoy being a warrior, that’s in my blood. I’m proud of that. But I like…creating. I also find it amusing the gulf between myself and these Pinterest mavens. Some of them are as skilled in creation as I am in destruction. They also pin many excellent recipes, which you have enjoyed, dove. So don’t mock my Pinterest boards, you love eating my cooking.”

Piccolo laughed and kissed the turn of Vegeta’s jaw, making him purr. “I’m not mocking it. I like your projects and seeing what you’re up to. I was just expressing my surprise. I like that you keep surprising me.”

“Do you?” Vegeta said, setting his knitting down. Piccolo was flummoxed trying to figure out what the hell it was that Vegeta was making, but Vegeta’s ineptitude seemed to be half the reason he enjoyed crafting, so it might not even remotely resemble the item he was attempting. His eyes searched Piccolo’s, like the answer to this question was very important.

Piccolo pulled Vegeta astride his lap. “Yeah, I do. It’s fun watching you discover all these new things that I’ve never heard of—what was that shit you were doing last week?”

“Oh yes! The curly paper things. Hmm…quilling! Yes. I made a very ridiculous octopus,” Vegeta said and chuckled as he kissed Piccolo lightly. “Thank you for allowing me such frivolity.”

“I love it. I love making you happy any way I can,” Piccolo said, and held the side of Vegeta’s neck, let his thumb trace along his jaw. He leaned and kissed the spot again. Vegeta looked into his eyes and kissed his mouth. Vegeta’s hands came up and held Piccolo’s face, kissed him more deeply. Piccolo fumbled for the remote and turned off the TV. Vegeta didn’t notice. He kept kissing Piccolo passionately and their hips seemed to move involuntarily toward one another.

Piccolo held Vegeta’s taut little ass in his hands. Piccolo loved the way he could palm each firm cheek, feel every rippling muscle. Piccolo had never loved an ass like he loved Vegeta’s. It was perfect. His only regret about holding it like this was that he couldn't also look at it. He panted already, aching just from a little kissing and butt groping. Gods he loved Vegeta. He ached he loved him so much.

Vegeta got off the couch, but never stopped kissing Piccolo. He gripped the outside of Piccolo’s thighs and hoisted him up on Vegeta’s hips. Vegeta kissed him all the way into the bedroom, laid him out on the bed and paused from kissing only to drag Piccolo’s sweats off, leaving him naked on the bed. Piccolo curled up and tugged off Vegeta’s skintight training pants. It was a challenge not to be hard all day with Vegeta’s training clothes. But they were fun to take off, like peeling the most delectable fruit in the world. Vegeta never wore anything under them, which severely hindered Piccolo’s concentration while training.

Piccolo kissed the front of each of Vegeta’s hips as he stood beside the bed. Piccolo ran his hands up the back of Vegeta’s thighs onto his sweet ass again, giving it a little squeeze. Piccolo kissed Vegeta’s abs, pressing his face into Vegeta’s pecs, and breathed his smell. Vegeta curled around him and rubbed his jaw on Piccolo’s skull. Piccolo grinned against his mate’s skin. Vegeta might not want to fuck Piccolo, but Piccolo no longer worried that Vegeta wasn’t his mate: Piccolo didn’t think any amount of bathing would get Vegeta’s scent off him. Out of his skin. He was Vegeta’s. He even enjoyed the way Vegeta’s scent-marking made other men behave around Piccolo: skittish and wary.

Vegeta kissed the top of his head and gently pushed Piccolo back onto the bed. Piccolo stretched out and pulled Vegeta down on him, not even caring if it knocked the wind out of him. Vegeta climbed between his legs, one of his hands skimming up Piccolo’s flank, onto his chest where he brushed his thumb back and forth over Piccolo’s nipple. Something new was radiating out of Vegeta, but Piccolo couldn’t pin down exactly what it was, but whatever it was, Piccolo liked it. Really liked it. His body really liked it and as he often did when he and Vegeta made out, he imagined what it might feel like when they finally made love.

Piccolo was more than ready to receive Vegeta. He had been for months, but once he’d seen how distressed it made Vegeta, he pushed his hope to the back of his mind, and reveled in all the pleasure they brought one another without that. And Piccolo wasn't sure Vegeta would ever receive him, and that was okay too. When he and Vegeta had first connected, after Vegeta’s epic brain-smacking, Piccolo’s primary attraction had definitely been an overwhelmingly physical thing. Certainly he had cared for Vegeta, but now, having spent months in Vegeta’s company, Piccolo’s love for Vegeta was intense, unshakeable. He was determined to go forward with his plan. He’d even talked to Bulma about it.

Vegeta writhed on him, kissing him and pulling Piccolo’s mind away from his rumination and back to his buzzing body. Vegeta’s chi was different now, and Piccolo noted with curiosity that somehow Vegeta’s chi was making Piccolo even harder than he usually got for Vegeta. Vegeta kept himself from crushing Piccolo by resting on one elbow and his other hand was insistent, hungry, touching Piccolo everywhere like it needed to know every square centimeter of Piccolo’s skin. 

Not having to look, after so much practice, Vegeta used his abs to hold himself off Piccolo while he reached with his other hand into their bedside table, grabbing the lube. He slathered his free hand, but left the bottle near at hand after pouring some on Piccolo’s pucker.

Vegeta might have had insecurities about toys and porn, but Piccolo couldn’t imagine a better top in the entire universe. Vegeta’s fingers always found the perfect rhythm and pace and place to touch Piccolo externally, and by the time his slid two fingers inside Piccolo, Piccolo was on the brink of coming just from that practiced touch. Piccolo pulled his legs up, wider, wanting Vegeta to be able to reach deep inside him. Vegeta never stopped kissing him; there was an almost frantic edge to his kissing.

Piccolo’s groans obviously delighted Vegeta and he finally broke from kissing Piccolo to suck along Piccolo’s jaw as he murmured, “Gods, dove, your ass…” but trailed off into his own groans.

Piccolo’s groans morphed into higher pitched cries as Vegeta’s fingers tried some new twirling move against his prostate. Vegeta had been on a quest to only get Piccolo off without his prick for the last week or so, never touching Piccolo’s cock when he was inside him. Piccolo found it so hot that he usually lost control faster when Vegeta didn’t touch or suck his cock. He cried, “Vegeta, oh, fuck, my prince…I…you’re gonna make me…”

“Yes, dove, give me your pleasure…” Vegeta growled and kissed Piccolo more. The new thing surged out of Vegeta like his heart was the epicenter of some emotional earthquake. Piccolo shuddered and felt, as if in slow-motion, his orgasm climb through his balls and the movement of his cum, spurting out of him in almost painful release as he crushed his mouth against Vegeta’s, his wail getting even higher, his breathing more erratic.

Vegeta eased his fingers out of Piccolo, brushing his jaw all over Piccolo’s jaw and neck and shoulders before kissing him more, like he was starving for Piccolo. Piccolo saw him grab the lube and wondered if he was going to try to jerk Piccolo off so soon. Sometimes Vegeta enjoyed pushing Piccolo to come again and again as close together as possible.

But Vegeta didn't lube Piccolo’s cock, he lubed his own, and he breathed, against Piccolo’s lips, “Oh, dove, I want to fuck you so badly…Can I? Can I fuck you? I’ll be careful…”

“Fuck, Vegeta, yes, gods yes. Please fuck me…” Piccolo rasped against Vegeta’s ear and kissed along Vegeta’s jaw until Vegeta turned to his mouth and his lips pulled at Piccolo’s, his tongue plunging into Piccolo’s mouth, and the wet heat of his mate’s tongue made him shiver. That tongue had done wicked things to Piccolo and every memory made him hotter for Vegeta. “Please…Vegeta…please…”

Vegeta slathered more lube on his prick and Piccolo saw the pre-cum pouring out of him. He knew that would help ease Vegeta inside him, that it would be like a nonstop internal source of lube, almost as if Piccolo lubricated like a bearer. The thought made Piccolo’s ass open more for Vegeta. He panted hard now, his desire making him unable to stop gasping and moaning and writhing toward Vegeta.

He felt the hard, wet head of Vegeta’s prick against his opening and he pushed toward Vegeta. Vegeta pulled away, grinning against Piccolo’s lips, and murmured, “So impatient, dove…let me fuck you properly.”

“Vegeta, holy shit, it’s been months…please…please…please don't tease me…”

“Mmm…what do you mean by tease?” Vegeta said, and a rumbling purr started in his throat. He worked his tip into Piccolo, making Piccolo cry out, but he withdrew it almost immediately.

Piccolo gasped and dug his claws into Vegeta’s hips, bit at his lips and his jaw. “Vegeta…you’re a monster…”

Vegeta’s eyelids fell heavy as he reared back to look down at Piccolo. He bent to kiss him again, taking his mouth savagely before he growled, rubbing his jaw along Piccolo’s, “Oh, dove, I am. I’m a fucking villain,” and Vegeta thrust back into Piccolo, only giving Piccolo his head, but it felt so good that Piccolo wanted to weep. Fingers could never compare to the bliss of just a small portion of Vegeta’s cock.

“You can’t be a fucking villain if you’re just a teasing villain…” Piccolo rasped against Vegeta’s neck. He brought his hands up to play with Vegeta’s nipples. He pinched them hard, making Vegeta lean back and the grin he gave Piccolo was feral, predatory, possessive.

Vegeta’s free hand groped its way down Piccolo’s flank into the crease where Piccolo’s leg was tucked up by his ribs. Vegeta skimmed his fingertips over the back of Piccolo’s thigh and over onto the backside of his hip, down onto his ass. Vegeta’s powerful, surprisingly large hand spread wide and gripped Piccolo’s cheek. His mouth took Piccolo’s so suggestively that Piccolo was curling his lower body up fast and hard, trying to take more of Vegeta, but Vegeta moved deftly in time with him so Piccolo never got more than that tantalizing head.

“Do you love me, dove?”

“Gods, yes, my prince. You’re my only. My mate. I love you.”

“Do you want to be mine forever? Always?”

“Yes, fuck, Vegeta, yes. Every second. For eternity. Even after death.”

“You want to be my mate? Truly my mate?”

“Yes, please, Vegeta, please don’t tease me anymore. I want all of you. Everything about you. I want to be yours. Entirely yours. Take me. Make me yours.”

“Say it.”

“Say what?”

“Say that you love me. That you want to be my mate.”

“I do love you, Vegeta. I want to be your mate. I want you to make me your mate. Please. I want it with all that I am. Please,” Piccolo panted out against Vegeta’s teasing lips. Vegeta’s hand kneaded his ass and started pulling him toward Vegeta, giving Piccolo a little more, but not enough.

“You’re mine, dove. My Piccolo,” Vegeta growled and slowly drove himself into Piccolo until Piccolo was full of his Saiyan mate and it was shocking, but not painful. There was just so much of Vegeta that it was nothing like fingering. It was smooth and so hot, despite Piccolo being the warmer of the two. And the length meant Vegeta could reach more of Piccolo’s electric nerves and he wailed helplessly at the ecstasy. He wanted Vegeta’s cock in him forever.

Tears burned in his eyes with the intensity of his need to have Vegeta ravish him. This, his mate’s prick buried to the hilt inside him, was perfect, like they had become one thrumming electrical circuit. Piccolo watched Vegeta’s face. Vegeta's eyes remained locked on his, but his mouth hung open and he purred out Piccolo’s name and pet name in alternating waves as he held himself fully inside Piccolo.

“Okay, dove? Okay if I move?” he breathed.

“Fuck me, Vegeta. Fuck me like I need.”

Vegeta grinned down at him and, holding his hip, started rolling into Piccolo smoothly, but so deep and with such glorious pressure. Piccolo didn’t even care if he came right away because he knew that Vegeta would just fuck him right into another orgasm without pause or judgement.

“Come whenever you feel it, dove, don’t hold back unless you want to hold back. But you're right. I will fuck you and fuck you and fuck you until you’re spent,” Vegeta growled and kissed Piccolo so passionately that Piccolo slid over the edge and cried out against Vegeta’s lips, as Piccolo’s first orgasm from being fucked wracked his body, Vegeta’s steely ab muscles grinding pleasantly on his dick as Vegeta thrust into him harder. “Oh, my mate, I love forcing your seed out of you like this. I didn’t understand it when we first started, but I love it. I love bringing you such pleasure and release. Come for me, dove, come hard.”

“Oh, Vegeta, I am. You feel amazing…” Piccolo groaned and more sperm shot out of him.

Piccolo felt his ass clenching on Vegeta’s cock and it felt so good, so different from coming on Vegeta’s fingers. Vegeta’s girth had his muscles stretched and straining, so when they contracted, Vegeta growled and held himself inside Piccolo, pulsing to reach a tiny bit deeper, and Piccolo continued to cry out as his muscles spasmed around Vegeta’s prick. Vegeta rasped, “Oh, my heart…your ass…it’s making me…ah! Dove, do you want me to fill you? To release my seed in you?”

“Fuck, yes, Vegeta. Claim me. Please, please, please, you know I love it when you release.”

Vegeta’s animal roar made Piccolo immediately hard again. Then Piccolo felt the liquid heat of Vegeta actually filling him, the hot pulse of his semen slick against Piccolo’s prostate. Vegeta continued his powerful thrusting and made Piccolo’s insides clench with an aftershock so powerful that some semen leaked out of his tip, along with more fluid from the pressure Vegeta was putting on his prostate. Vegeta slid his hands up behind Piccolo’s knees, pushing them to the bed beside Piccolo’s shoulders, opening Piccolo more, so Vegeta could thrust deeper inside him and they groaned together, exulting in their bodies’ joining. Vegeta’s seed overflowed out of Piccolo and he hoped that it turned Vegeta on as much as it turned Piccolo on.

Piccolo could feel Vegeta’s rumbling, ecstatic purring all the way inside himself and he continued to twitch in response to that vibration and Vegeta whimpered with pleasure and surged into Piccolo again, finding new length, and still so hard that he continued to milk Piccolo. Piccolo couldn’t stop crying out, couldn’t stop lifting his hips to meet Vegeta's thrusts, and he felt…changed. Possessed. Mated. Piccolo had been right, months ago, that fucking would alter things between them. Vegeta must have known that and Piccolo was glad he had waited until he was ready. The changed feeling was intense for Piccolo, and he could feel Vegeta trying to stem the flow of his overwhelming, conflicted emotions that pulled on Piccolo’s mind like a riptide.

He seized Vegeta's face in his hands as they continued to pulse together. He kissed him more, but then he pressed his forehead to Vegeta’s to calm him. To soothe him. Piccolo’s mate wasn’t exactly freaking out, but he was struggling with the momentous feelings that had accompanied the act of mating. Piccolo thought it was just as well that they’d put off _theadur_ fucking. That might’ve broken Vegeta. But someday, Piccolo hoped, Vegeta would be ready for that too.

Vegeta’s wild torrent of shame and satisfaction and self-hatred and crazed possessiveness and confusion and aching lust slowed to a trickle and then finally stopped, replaced by soft, lapping waves of love and contentment and…gratitude, which surprised Piccolo more than all the other emotions. Piccolo nuzzled into Vegeta's neck and wished for the first time that he could mark Vegeta. Vegeta must have heard his thought because he started gently rubbing their jaws together. He whispered, “I do smell _more_ like you when you rub on me. But you don't have the scent glands I do. I don't mind the lack of glands if you wish to ‘mark’ me, dove.”

Piccolo tipped Vegeta’s mouth to his and kissed him. “Mmm…no. I think maybe I just want you to mark me more. It feels so good. Or it makes me feel good. I don’t know if there’s a difference,” he said, sighing happily, and he squeezed Vegeta, “Gods, I love you, Vegeta. Thank you.”

A sudden swell of nervousness crested over all the joy and love and Vegeta stammered, “I…um…did…was it okay? I didn't hurt you?”

Piccolo twisted so he could look into Vegeta’s eyes. “Vegeta, come on, of course you didn’t hurt me. I’ll tell you right away if you’re hurting me. And seriously? We are practically glued together with my cum, I really, really, really enjoyed that. It was fantastic. You’re fantastic. That was so far above the best sex I’ve ever had it doesn’t even feel like the same thing. Why so insecure, my prince?”

Vegeta settled back on his chest. “But…you’ve never received before, so maybe…maybe it was just receiving? I…are you sure you aren't mad that I didn’t want to do the toys?”

“Vegeta, no, it was not just receiving. It was you. And I’m not even annoyed, let alone mad, about the toys. Hey,” Piccolo whispered the last word and pulled Vegeta up for another kiss, “You’re all I’ll ever need. Stop fretting about me showing you the wider world of Earthling sexuality.”

Vegeta looked away and said, almost inaudibly, “And you’re not put off by my…my femininity?”

“What?! Okay, for starters, even if you were feminine, what the hell does that even mean? In what way are you feminine? And no. Just no. I love everything about you. I would love you if you were feminine.”

“In my internet foraging, I found that the things I’ve been engaging in are widely considered female pursuits on Earth.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Vegeta, that’s because our country and most countries on Earth are ruled by an insecure patriarchy of worthless assholes. Defining arbitrary gender categories allows them to subjugate women, and men who don’t wish to oppress women. It’s bullshit. So no. I don’t find you feminine, for one thing, and you can knit yourself bras and panties and I still won't find you feminine, but even if you, I don't know, felt feminine and wanted that, wanted to _be_ feminine, I don’t care. Gender shit on this planet has always confused the hell out of me. Maybe because I’m, you know, both.”

“You’re sure? You aren’t repulsed?”

“What?! Gods! No, Vegeta, what the hell websites are you on? I thought you just used Pinterest.”

“I started an Instagram for my Pinterest fails, because I find them amusing, and there are people on Instagram that have expressed surprise and berated me for being male and doing these things. I…I wasn’t aware when I started, but I…I like this crafting, as you call it. Just as I like cooking. And fighting. And fucking. But I’ll stop, if you don’t like me doing it.”

Piccolo sat up. It disturbed him that Vegeta would ever think he was so shallow, but he supposed Vegeta hadn’t really ever experienced the true vitriol of a culture’s toxic side because he and Raditz didn’t have to deal with their own people, only the memory of what was ‘allowed.’ “Vegeta, you know how you and Raditz tail-twined before your first heat-coupling?”

“Yes,” Vegeta shivered and his eyes slid closed as Piccolo got hit with a minor flurry of very erotic memories.

“What would have happened if you two had been on Vegetasei and had gotten caught?”

“Well, he likely would have been banished as a third-class sullying the heir to the throne. But even if we had been similar in class and I hadn’t been royalty, our parents would have been furious, and we might’ve been shamed publicly. There are some that felt that way about…about other things we did.”

“Yeah. Do you think that made your tail-twining less special or meaningful for the two of you? That it was…I dunno…not acceptable?”

“No, I’ve never regretted that. It was one of the happiest days of my life.”

“Yeah, what you’re experiencing on Instagram is like public shaming to try to maintain the status quo. I know I’m not Raditz, but I am your second best and I will love you no matter what, but I want to be really clear: I don’t give a shit what internet trolls say about what activities you should engage in. Those same trolls think what we just did was a criminal act. They say we should be put to death for doing it.”

“Piccolo, you’re not second best,” Vegeta said, looking hurt, but continued, “Put to death for doing what?”

“Fucking.”

“But Earthlings fuck! And apparently even make recordings of it!”

“Yeah, but two guys, or at least two people with dicks, are not allowed to fuck according to the patriarchy.”

“But…but…really? Why?”

“Yeah. I don’t understand it, so I can’t tell you why. They would tell you that you wanting to be with me is also ‘feminine’ as well as ‘deviant’ and ‘immoral’ and who knows what other bullshit. No one says anything to my face because I’m huge and scary, but I hear people and I know you’ve heard them too, when we’re out together, holding hands or touching, you hear them hissing rude stuff, right?”

“I thought that was because we were aliens! And in a cross-species relationship! It’s because we both have _dicks_?!” Vegeta looked absolutely horrified. “But…some of these ‘trolls’ as you call them, some, though fewer, are women! How can women support this patriarchy?”

Piccolo shrugged. “Look, I think you should get off Instagram if it’s making you feel bad about stuff. That’s like Instagram’s whole goal, I think.”

“Perhaps you’re right. I was happier when I only used Pinterest to find new activities and tutorials.”

“But I’ll always love you, no matter what you do.”

“Likewise, dove, and right at the moment, the only thing I can think of doing, is fucking you.”

Piccolo grinned as Vegeta purred loudly, marking Piccolo’s pecs before rolling them both over so Piccolo sat astride his lap. He curled up to meet Piccolo before Piccolo could make it down to kiss him more. Piccolo whispered, “You gonna let me ride you, Vegeta?”

Vegeta threw his head back as Piccolo rubbed their dicks together, so Piccolo took the opportunity to kiss down his throat, back up onto his jaw and all along it, tasting his mate’s scent. Vegeta rolled up against Piccolo’s hips, showing off his exquisite abs’ definition. Piccolo growled and ran his hands over the powerful ridges.

Vegeta gasped, his head coming down, but his eyes were hazy, “Oh fuck, Piccolo…I do want you to ride me. But I also…I think I want you to fuck me. If that’s not weird. Or too feminine…” Vegeta groaned and bucked up toward Piccolo. “Gods, how can I be this hungry after I just had you?”

Piccolo couldn’t contain his grin. “You want me to fuck you? Hell yes, Vegeta. And fucking-a, you need to get off Instagram. There is nothing weird or feminine about wanting to get fucked. I want it, you want it, that's all that matters, right? Even if it were weird.”

Vegeta smirked and growled, “Mmm…I think in your heart, you might be a deviant.”

“There is no room in my heart for anything but you, my prince,” Piccolo whispered and bent to kiss Vegeta more. To his surprise, tears welled in Vegeta’s eyes. “Hey, hey, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Vegeta shook his head and swiped at his eyes. “Nothing, nothing. Sorry. That was very sweet, dove.”

Piccolo furrowed his brow and said, “It’s the truth, Vegeta. I love you so much, I’m so lucky you’re my mate,” and kissed Vegeta more as his mate’s purring resumed with vigor. Piccolo murmured against his lips. “Can I ride you and then fuck you? It’s so hot being on you like this, that I want you…”

They lubed Vegeta, their hands slick together on his hard-on. Vegeta’s eyelids fluttered with pleasure and he breathed, “Oh, dove…”

Before their hands were sliding over one another on his mate’s cock, Piccolo thought he had achieved the very highest level of arousal possible without being in the actual throes of his climax, but as they stroked Vegeta together, Piccolo trembled and gasped, “Gods, my prince, I…I need you.”

Vegeta was speechless but nodded enthusiastically as Piccolo rose up on his knees to line Vegeta up, then he slid slowly down onto his lover, taking his entire length without pause. Vegeta groaned, but held himself still out of obvious concern for Piccolo, not wanting to hurt him. “I’m fine, Vegeta, please, fuck me deep, fuck me hard.”

Vegeta chuckled through his deep, throbbing purr and said, “Better hold on, dove,” and he wrapped his hands on Piccolo’s hips, squeezing him with a growl, “Is there no part of you that isn’t perfect? Gods, you’re perfect.”

Piccolo almost giggled as he felt his cheeks heat at Vegeta’s words. Vegeta gripped him tightly and started thrusting up hard into Piccolo, making him cry out with each impact inside him, hitting him so that he felt transcendent. Piccolo liked the vantage of being able to look down and see Vegeta’s whole glorious torso and arms and expression. Vegeta’s ecstasy was plain on his face and that made Piccolo’s pelvis feel heavy and hot, clenching on Vegeta, twitching more as he got closer. 

Piccolo bent down and kissed Vegeta, holding his jaw, running his fingers along it roughly, which made Vegeta purr and his eyes cleared a little. He gasped as Piccolo did the same on the other side before dragging his scented fingers over his chest, touching his own nipples. Vegeta breathed, “Dove…if you keep doing that…”

Piccolo gave him a seductive little smirk and took more of Vegeta’s scent, Vegeta helplessly leaning into the fingertips along his jaw. Piccolo left one hand on Vegeta’s jaw while he gripped his own prick in his Vegeta-scented hand. Vegeta’s eyes went wide and he drove harder into Piccolo. “Holy fuck, Piccolo, that…you have to stop putting my scent on your dick…”

“Why, Vegeta?” Piccolo panted, because he could feel that Vegeta didn't really want that at all.

“Because I can’t hold out if you keep doing that.”

“Mmm…” Piccolo hummed and took more of Vegeta's scent, tipped back a little on Vegeta's thrusts and traced one Vegeta-marked finger along the slit of his _theadur._ “I don't want you to hold out, Vegeta. I want you to come inside me, to fill me to overflowing again, so I can come and clench on your dick, maybe milk a little more of your seed out of you. Because I know you're going to release for me, right?”

Vegeta’s eyes were riveted to Piccolo’s fingers on his _theadur_. He gasped, “Yes, yes, yes, oh gods…can you…can you finger your slit a little for me, while I fuck you? Can you do that? Would it feel as hot as it would be to watch?”

Piccolo slipped the tips of two of his fingers inside his velvety tunnel and the euphoria of doing that while Vegeta fucked him almost made him faint. He wailed and came explosively, hitting Vegeta’s jaw, amusingly, and he watched Vegeta’s face contort with his pleasure before he threw his head back and drove hard up into Piccolo, lifting them both off the bed as he spent himself deep inside Piccolo. The depth of his thrust surprised Piccolo as it set off Piccolo’s _theadur_ , so he had the pleasure of a double orgasm while Vegeta was inside him. Now he knew that he could die of both love and sex, and Vegeta was the only one who could kill him that way. Piccolo felt like he’d left his body behind as it trembled and shook and seized and filled with dopamine.

Vegeta held them in the air, pulsed into Piccolo, who now truly rode him, his legs dangling free, his head almost brushing the ceiling. Vegeta lowered them gently back onto the bed and sat up on his elbows to kiss Piccolo. They said nothing for a long time, just kissed. Vegeta purred loudly and marked Piccolo so exuberantly that Piccolo felt bathed in his warm, pleasant scent, but Piccolo knew it was just pleasure, not actual marking, that the scent wasn’t the goal, the marking was the goal. Vegeta stopped frequently to kiss Piccolo and kissed his knuckles, his nipples, slid his hands up and down the inside of Piccolo’s thighs, gripping them occasionally with a little flare of growling mixed into the purring. 

Piccolo rested on Vegeta, kissing his jaw and his ear on his way to flopping down with his head on the pillow beside Vegeta’s. Piccolo’s fingers followed along ridges of muscle on Vegeta’s arm, and chest, and side, and stomach. He loved feeling Vegeta's skin, touching him everywhere. “I think we’re nailing this fucking thing, Vegeta,” Piccolo said softly, kissing the turn of Vegeta’s jaw, nipping his earlobe, which made him shiver. 

“Yes, my heart, I believe we are. Gods. Do you even know what that did to me? That was quite…mmm…enticing. Erotic. Sexy.”

“It was, wasn’t it? I just wanted your scent everywhere on me. And I mean everywhere. I think you might have to mark my ass while you rim me, maybe get some on your fingers before you finger me.”

“Gods, dove, we may have to have a quick bath and get the lube off your ass so I can get right to it. Although now I want to fuck your _theadur_ too, Piccolo. Our training may have to go on the back burner again for a while.”

“I prefer this type of training anyway, but I know how you Saiyans are.”

Vegeta curled up into a sitting position, bringing Piccolo up with him and looking up to kiss him. “Do you know how we are?”

Piccolo held his face with both hands, grinning as he pressed his forehead to Vegeta’s and said, “Mmm…insatiable, yeah?”

“Too true, dove, especially with you. I’m still starving for you,” Vegeta growled and sucked along his collarbone before dragging his jaw along it. “You’re still okay?”

“Yes, my prince. I promise, I will tell you in the moment if I’m ever not okay. You’ll do the same, right, once I'm fucking you? You won’t try to ‘tough it out’ or some Saiyan pride bullshit?”

Vegeta chuckled. “Mmm…maybe you do know how Saiyans are. Very well, I will inform you if I’m uncomfortable.”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta back down and pinned his hands above his wild hair. “Vegeta, you fucking wreck me with love, you know that?”

“Mmm…do I?” Vegeta purred.

“You do. Do you still want me to fuck you?”

Vegeta’s face was inscrutable. He allowed Piccolo to keep him pinned and said, “I’m nervous,” looking into Piccolo’s eyes.

“We can wait, my prince. No rush.”

“No, I want it. I’m just nervous.” Vegeta’s purring had stopped.

Piccolo sucked on Vegeta’s earlobe and whispered, “What if I warm you up and see how you feel? If you’re still nervous, that can be it. If you’re ready, I’ll give it to you.” Soft purring resumed and Vegeta rolled his hips against Piccolo’s belly. “You fucked me perfectly, Vegeta, it’s a lot to live up to, so I’m nervous too,” Piccolo said, kissing along Vegeta’s jaw.

Piccolo scooped up Vegeta’s perfectly palm-filling ass, lifted and spread him and tasted Vegeta, imagined that perfect, tight heat on his cock, and he could feel himself dripping already. He dragged his tongue up onto Vegeta’s taint, pulsing on it hard with his tongue as he used his lower jaw to massage Vegeta’s opening. After a moment he took his tongue back to explore Vegeta more, to dip inside him, which always made Vegeta shiver. He groaned Piccolo’s name, caressing his antennae. Piccolo spread Vegeta wider and flattened his tongue, lapping at him, curling his tongue against Vegeta’s bud like he meant to open it, which he supposed he did.

Piccolo had never enjoyed rimming like he did with Vegeta, and soon he was swept up in worshipping Vegeta’s sweet ass. He couldn’t even think past the feeling of making Vegeta come while he had his face buried in his exquisitely firm cheeks. Piccolo’s dick twitched just thinking about it. He said, _Touch yourself, my prince, I can’t think about letting go of your ass because it feels so good in my hands. But I want you to come on my face._

_No, I want to come on your dick. I want it, my heart,_ Vegeta answered, purring and moaning too much to speak. Piccolo loved making Vegeta speechless.

_Come on my face first, please?_

Piccolo felt Vegeta begin to stroke himself and Piccolo growled happily against his ass. That made Vegeta gasp and a few twitches tickled Piccolo’s tongue. Piccolo lapped at him more and faster until Vegeta couldn’t even purr anymore as he cried out, his voice going higher and higher until Piccolo felt his climax, though he knew Vegeta wouldn’t release like this, just as he didn't release when he masturbated. But Vegeta’s ass went crazy, tightening and spasming and twitching on Piccolo’s tongue. It was bliss and Piccolo gave his own breathy cry as his tongue reveled in Vegeta’s pleasure.

“Oh, dove, I need you inside me…” Vegeta breathed and got the lube. 

Piccolo relinquished his hold on Vegeta’s ass to help Vegeta lube him and their eyelids fell heavy. It was strange that in all their making out, they had never done this sort of combined hand-job. Piccolo gasped, “I would very much like to give you a hand-job like this at some point.”

Vegeta nodded and lunged up to kiss Piccolo. Piccolo sat back on his haunches and pulled Vegeta into his lap. They frotted until Vegeta couldn’t stop pleading. Piccolo whispered, “My prince, like this? Or you want to be on your back?”

“Like this, if I can control the pace?”

“Of course,” Piccolo said against Vegeta’s lips and Vegeta rose up more on his knees. Piccolo moved his cock with Vegeta to line himself up, feeling the ridges of Vegeta’s opening on his tip. “Gods, Vegeta…”

Piccolo felt Vegeta relax against him, open for him, and his mate eased down slowly onto him, taking him a tiny bit at a time. Piccolo’s dick was proportional to his body, which meant he was about the same size as Vegeta, who was hung, especially on his much smaller frame. But that also meant Vegeta’s ass was smaller, taking a big cock. Piccolo could feel how tense he was and knew that was a no-go. “Hey, sexy, I think this position is making you tenser than I want you to be for your first time, can I lay you back?”

Vegeta’s eyes met his with a little worried peak in his brows. He nodded. His purring had ceased during the rim job and hadn’t started again. It wasn’t unusual for Vegeta to move into purring with pleasure and stop purring as his other vocalizations overpowered the purring, but normally, the early stages of any sexual act were prime purring time, so Piccolo was concerned. He also felt the first psychic flurries of panic. Piccolo pressed his forehead to Vegeta’s, though oddly Vegeta flinched, just a little. Piccolo did it just to soothe him, but Vegeta resisted. Which was bizarre. Vegeta never resisted. 

Piccolo pulled his forehead and his dick away from Vegeta. “Hey, Vegeta, what’s going on? I don’t want to do this if you aren’t ready.”

Vegeta shook his head and whispered, “I am. I’m ready.”

“Why are you pushing back on me?”

“I…I don’t want you in my mind while I do it.”

“Why?” Now Piccolo was having his own flurries of panic.

“I just…what if…I just want to be able to do it.”

“What does that mean? Is it hurting? Why don’t I finger you first and see if that relaxes you?”

“No. No pain.”

“Vegeta, you’re freaking me out.”

“Please, Piccolo, please fuck me without…without being in my head?”

“But it doesn’t feel like you’re enjoying it. I don’t want to fuck you when you’re just _enduring_ it. That feels gross.”

“I’m not enduring it, dove…I’m just…I’m very self-conscious being…being seeded. Receiving. It’s…I’m…It’s strange for someone who was mated to a bearer. I want it, but it’s…It’s…I feel very…very…” Vegeta trailed into growling Saiyan. He started kissing Piccolo again, obviously trying to distract him.

Piccolo let him kiss until the emotional waves roiling off Vegeta were less conflicted then he said, “It’s hard for a Namek to feel…okay…without that connection, you know? I’m sorry. Plus you feel so unhappy and I don't want to be the reason you’re unhappy. All I want from life is to make you happy.”

“I know, dove. I know. If…If I do it your way, you can’t get mad or upset…”

“Do you want to share _peluwsa_ first? Would that be helpful? So it’s not all hitting you while we’re actually fucking?”

Vegeta palmed the back of Piccolo’s head and thrust their heads together. It hit Piccolo hard all the times Vegeta and Raditz had tried this very same thing, but Vegeta had always lost his erection and been humiliated. Raditz had never penetrated him, even with his fingers, but Piccolo could feel in the memories how culturally wrong what they were attempting was, not because seeders weren’t supposed to be penetrated, but because it was considered a “waste” of a bearer to be the top. Piccolo saw, for the first time, Vegeta feeling that Raditz wasn’t perfect, because Raditz was definitely the problem. He agreed to try, but he was very unenthusiastic and maybe a little annoyed that Vegeta wanted such a thing. Raditz had no interest, even teased Vegeta for it. So Vegeta hadn’t been entirely honest with Piccolo when he’d suggested they both be verse. Perhaps he was ashamed that he hadn’t told Piccolo that he’d wanted it with Raditz?

Once Vegeta loosened his grip on Piccolo’s skull, he held Vegeta’s jaw on both side and kissed his tightly closed eyes. “Hey. My prince. Look at me.”

Vegeta’s eyes were wet when they rose hesitantly to meet Piccolo’s, but Vegeta said nothing.

Piccolo smiled at him and said, “Vegeta, I really, really, really want to fuck you, for starters. Like, really badly. Since I met you. Aside from that, you know lots of guys can have prostate orgasms without being hard, right? It’s not abnormal. But I think that was because you were ashamed, probably because your partner wasn’t into what you were doing. He was making fun of you for wanting it, of course it didn’t go well. Know that I am into it. And excited you’re into it. And remember all the other ways you rejected Saiyan sexual culture that ended up being delightful?”

Vegeta nodded, perking up a little. A little burst of purring.

“Yeah, think of this like that. What were you worried I’d be mad about?”

“Me thinking about Raditz. While doing…while…” Vegeta’s whole body seemed to shrivel as he spoke. 

“Vegeta, fuck all, how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care even a little when you think about Raditz while we’re together. Even if you were pretending that I was Raditz while we fucked. The brain and memory and emotions do what they’re gonna do. It’s okay. Really. I keep telling you. It’s like you telling me not to worry I’m going to piss you off. You’re not going to make me jealous by thinking about your mate of thirty-odd years. Okay? If you start fantasizing about random dudes we meet at the grocery store, I might be jealous, but Raditz? No. I can’t compare to Raditz. And for fuck’s sake, it hasn’t even been two years.”

Vegeta gave him a long, intense look and brain-smacked Piccolo with a heady mixture of love and lust and gratitude and comfort and ease. He held Piccolo’s face and kissed him hesitantly, his lips touching Piccolo’s lightly, before they took his bottom lip. Vegeta nipped Piccolo’s bottom lip, then used his tongue to pull at Piccolo’s top lip, before pushing their mouths together more confidently. His tongue twined around Piccolo’s, then found his fangs, as he often liked to do, so much that Piccolo associated the taste of Vegeta’s blood with arousal.

Vegeta slid his hand onto Piccolo’s waist where they sat half in each other’s laps, their legs tangled around one another. He splayed his hand on Piccolo’s tailbone and roughly pulled Piccolo against him as he whispered, “I want you, Piccolo.”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta more deeply, and lifted Vegeta up, spreading his ass wide over Piccolo’s cock. Vegeta reached behind himself and ran another handful of lube over Piccolo’s prick, and Piccolo used the tips of his fingers to spread Vegeta’s pucker as he lowered Vegeta onto him, Vegeta’s legs wrapped around his waist, not even touching the ground. He murmured, “No Saiyan, tough-guy bullshit, Vegeta.”

Vegeta nodded and Piccolo pressed his mouth back to Vegeta’s jaw, the turn of his jaw. Piccolo sucked his earlobe for a moment before finding Vegeta’s mouth again. Finding it hungry and wanton. They kissed like it was all they had, but Piccolo was trembling as he felt Vegeta really relax for him, to open himself, both his ass and his mind, to let Piccolo feel his fear and insecurity, but also his aching want, his trembling excitement, the furor of his passion for Piccolo. It made Piccolo pant into Vegeta’s mouth as he lowered his mate smoothly, but with teasing, dramatic slowness, onto his waiting erection.

_Please don't think you’re less than him to me, dove, because that’s not so. I just haven’t had you so long. And I hope I never lose you. I hope I never have to miss you as I miss him,_ Vegeta’s mind whispered to Piccolo.

Vegeta’s fears went unrealized as he stayed hard as cast iron as Piccolo slid into him. His fear of thinking about Raditz was also mostly unfounded, the memories that did flash into the mostly nebulous flood of feeling and sensation were all of times Vegeta had fucked Raditz in this position. All good memories. No more of Raditz being unsupportive. Which Piccolo didn’t like. It was weird how much he didn’t like Raditz being flawed, but he didn’t. He wanted Vegeta to have had a perfect mate. Thought Vegeta deserved a perfect mate.

“Oh, dove, you’re so sweet,” Vegeta murmured against Piccolo’s lips, but then rolled his hips, his taut little ass flexing deliciously in Piccolo’s palms and his opening gripping Piccolo’s dick in a tight, fiery ring, “And so fucking hot. You feel incredible inside me, my heart. It’s so different than fingering.”

“Isn’t it? I love you, my prince. You’re amazing. Fucking you feels so good.”

Vegeta purred loudly now and they writhed, clinging to one another as they surged together in their butterfly-seated position. Vegeta leaned back a little to press his forehead to Piccolo’s while looking into his eyes. “My mate, my perfect mate, I think…I think you’re going to make me come without even touching my cock. You fit me perfectly, Piccolo. I love it. I love you. Come with me, dove…come inside me…” Vegeta gasped.

Piccolo breathed, “I am, my prince, oh gods, Vegeta…” and devolved into a groaning growl as he pulled Vegeta down onto him deeply. Then he cried out, “Release for me, yeah? Yeah?”

Vegeta nodded and slammed his mouth against Piccolo’s lips as Piccolo felt the hot, wet splatter of Vegeta coming all over their bellies and chests. Vegeta clutched at Piccolo’s head as he kissed him and as Piccolo let himself go inside Vegeta they touched foreheads, letting their pleasure and the high of their orgasms travel into each, giving each a secondary wave of ecstasy and euphoria. Piccolo’s stomach clenched and his skin tingled as he felt the way Vegeta felt changed too, felt like they were truly mated, like they belonged to and with each other. Vegeta’s mind also radiated the furry, cuddly feeling of being a family. Like they were a unit. A team. A pair. Mates.


	10. Mates

Piccolo lounged on the beach while Vegeta swam, but Piccolo could feel him moving amidst all the microscopic chi. Bulma had convinced them to join her and Yamcha and Krillin and Gohan and ChiChi for a picnic on the beach. Neither he nor Vegeta particularly wanted to go, but Bulma said she wouldn’t reveal her new training invention if he and Vegeta didn’t join them. 

Piccolo, for his part, wanted to talk to her about getting his hands on the next round of dragon balls. Yamcha, Tien, and Chaozu were resurrected, not that Piccolo gave a shit about those three wastes of organic matter, but it meant that Bulma had fulfilled her wishes of getting the Nameks to the New Namek they’d decided to resettle on, and that she’d brought her three worthless friends back. Now Piccolo might be able to convince her to let him use the dragon radar.

_Dove, come swim, I want to touch you and I believe it would be considered obscene on the beach._

_Mmm…if you touch me, I’m going to want to do more than a little touching, and then we’ll have to go._

_Please? My blood’s up. I just fought a large, interesting fish with so many teeth! It was more thrilling than any of the so-called ‘warriors’ on this planet._

_Did you just murder a shark, Vegeta?_

_Oh! Is that what it’s called? I didn’t murder it, but it didn’t give up trying to bite me after one strike. Which is more than those pathetic humans can say._

_Well, I’m glad—_

“Hello! Earth to Piccolo! Why aren’t you answering me?” Bulma squawked.

_Bulma is pestering me. Sorry,_ Piccolo said to Vegeta.

“What, Bulma? I was talking with Vegeta,” Piccolo said, cracking an eye and sounding more grumpy than he should if he hoped to get ahold of the dragon radar.

“I asked how that was going, anyway? I can’t imagine dating Vegeta. I can imagine fucking Vegeta—“

“Do not say more, Bulma, or I will want to hit you, and I do not want to hit you right now. He’s my mate, don’t talk about touching him.”

“Jeez, so prickly, Piccolo. I just meant I could see the appeal, with the body on that one.”

Piccolo smiled helplessly. Vegeta did have a body, that was for sure. Piccolo thought about his longing for a friend to tell about his love for Vegeta; the way his love overflowed out of him until he just wanted to tackle Vegeta and kiss him every second. The way his insides rearranged themselves every time Vegeta smirked at him over his shoulder while cooking or as he worked on elaborate craft projects. The way Vegeta kissed him softly before they slept every night and then Namek-kissed him, sharing their day, even if they’d spent the whole day together, which they mostly did, but it still always felt so magical, so close, so loving.

“Are you still talking to him? Come on, you’re with him all the time, talk to me. Tell me what it’s like with a Saiyan boyfriend.”

Piccolo felt himself blush, absurdly. He grinned again. “I wasn’t talking to him. I was thinking how great it is.”

“Are you serious?” Bulma said with a derisive snort.

Piccolo was taken aback by how…unkind she sounded. He said, narrowing his eyes, “Are you jealous, Bulma?”

“What? Nooo! No, no, no. I’m back with Yamcha now. We’re doing great,” Bulma said, flipping her new haircut and glancing at her freshly manicured nails. Piccolo noted that Yamcha had his scrawny chest puffed out for some blonde bimbo in a microscopic bikini.

“Yeah, well, Vegeta is perfect. I love him so much.”

She laughed for a minute and then it petered out. “Are you…are you serious?”

Piccolo was affronted now. “Of course I’m fucking serious! He’s my mate! I love him deeply. Why is that surprising?”

She laughed and said, “Neither of you is exactly the loving type.”

“You know nothing about him. Don’t disparage him again.”

“Jeez. Well, then tell me about it. I mean…what do you guys do?”

Piccolo sighed happily and said, “Everything.”

“But like…do you just train all day and then go home and collapse from exhaustion?”

Piccolo chuckled. “Uh, no, training all day doesn’t exhaust us. If we really go all out like trying to kill each other it does, but even then, we certainly don’t just collapse.”

Bulma giggled and wiggled her eyebrows at him as she said, “Oh yeah, do you guys have a decent sex-life even though all he cares about is training?”

“Decent is not even close to how I would describe it. And he cares about tons of stuff besides training. You really don’t know him, Bulma. He’s sweet and caring and funny. An amazing cook. Fan-fucking-tastic in bed. Smart. Devoted. You don’t know him at all. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Bulma gaped at him. “Vegeta cooks?”

“Vegeta does a ton of shit.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Like what?”

Piccolo laughed, “Me, for starters.”

Bulma guffawed and smacked his arm. “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor, Piccolo!”

“See, you Earthlings are all just biased against aliens.”

“Oh bullshit, you and Vegeta are both surly as hell, Piccolo. Maybe you both just needed to get laid to stop being fucking villains. Goku went about things all wrong with you two.”

“Shut up, Bulma. I would _never_ fuck Goku. Gross.”

“Oh don’t be such a baby, I was just kidding. I still just can’t believe Vegeta is your boyfriend. I can’t believe he’s anybody’s boyfriend, he’s so crabby—“

“He’s not my _boyfriend_ , he’s my godsdamned _mate_!”

Vegeta’s voice came in his mind, _Dove, everything okay? Your chi is rising. I found another, bigger shark!_

_Don’t kill sharks, Vegeta!_

_I’m not killing them. We raced! Exhilarating!_

_I’m fine, Bulma’s just asking me dumb questions._

_Oh? Is she asking if I’m good in bed?_

_That too._

_And? What did you tell her?_

_I said you’re fucking amazing but she was never getting a taste._ Piccolo smiled as Vegeta’s laughter growled in his mind.

“Do you guys just telepathically talk all the time? I bet that is so handy when sixty-nining!” Bulma said, clearly hoping to get a rise out of Piccolo.

He raised an eyebrow, grinning, and said, “It really is so convenient.”

She punched his shoulder again and said, “Not really though?”

“Yes, really! That’s why I taught him.”

“Sweet Kami, Piccolo, you’re such a surprise! I didn’t even know you had sex until you just show up after Vegeta takes you as his ‘mate.’ What does that even mean?”

“I guess the closest you humans get is marriage, but it’s not like that. It’s more…intense…than that. Unshakeable. Unbreakable.”

“Aw, you do sound like you love him,” she said, and she sighed.

“I do love him! What is that supposed to mean!? Gods, I thought it’d be nice to have someone to gush to about how much I love him, but you suck at receiving gushing.”

Bulma giggled and said, “You want to gush about him!? Aw!”

“Yes!! How have you not gotten that from everything I’ve said?!” Piccolo practically shrieked. 

Krillin chose that moment to flop down in a lounge chair next to Piccolo and said, “Hey, Piccolo! What have you been up to since we got back from Namek? Bulma said you and Vegeta are training together?”

“Why is everybody acting like we’re not a real couple? It’s fucking infuriating! He’s my godsdamned mate! I love him! Stop trivializing it!”

Krillin’s eyes were huge. Krillin spluttered, “Wha…aaa…t? What did you just say? Did you say…did you…You and V…V…Vegeta? You guys are a…couple?”

Piccolo’s irritation was rising enough that he saw Vegeta pop his head out of the water and say, _Okay, dove?_

_Yes, just irritated at the humans_.

_How long did the woman say we have to stay to earn the knowledge of the new training tech?_

_I don’t know. I’m fine. Enjoy your swim_.

_There are creatures in here that seem like fish, but breathe air with lungs. They are very intelligent_. Vegeta made a noise like a dolphin and continued, _is what they call themselves._

_I love that you’ve been swimming for half an hour and you speak ‘dolphin’ when humans have been trying to crack that code forever._

_What?! How can they not understand?_

_I love you so much, Vegeta. I’m fine. Enjoy the dolphins._

_That is not their name._

_I know, but I don't speak their language. I’m dealing with humans. I love you, my prince._

Piccolo got hit with a huge brain-smack of love and lust and dolphin-ese and the joy Vegeta was feeling in the depths of the ocean. He grinned and shook his head as Krillin said, “Yo, Piccolo, you okay?”

“I was talking to Vegeta. It’s hard to talk out loud to one person and telepathically to another, and I will always prioritize talking to my mate. Why do people keep being surprised that we’re mated?”

Krillin’s forehead wrinkled up as his eyes widened and he said, “I had no idea either of you…you know…had feelings. You’re both…stand-offish. Good for you though, I always kinda wondered if Vegeta was just a big ol’ tsundere, just like you.”

Piccolo growled, but also thought it was maybe pretty on point. Maybe he should gush with Krillin.

Krillin continued, “I’m not gay, but I bet it’s nice to have a companion. What’s Vegeta like, you know, when he’s not grumpy and murdering?”

Piccolo smirked and thought maybe Krillin was more interested in gushing.

Bulma interrupted, “Now hold on, Krillin, Piccolo just told me he wanted to gush about Vegeta! I want to hear it! You go away!”

Krillin crossed his arms. “Maybe Piccolo would prefer to gush to me, huh, Bulma, since I won’t be jealous?”

Bulma practically blew steam out her nose and said shrilly, “I’m not jealous!”

“Yeah, you totally are! I know you wanted to sleep with Vegeta!” Krillin challenged.

“Shut up, Krillin, Yamcha is right over there!”

“Then let Piccolo gush to me!”

“Why can’t he gush to both of us?”

Piccolo growled, “I can, but you two never shut up!”

They both turned to him in shock. Piccolo was normally pretty quiet, especially in groups. They both looked hopeful. He crossed his arms and felt Vegeta’s chi, delighted and effervescent as he swam with a pod of dolphins far out to sea. He was helping them fish. He had good ideas and was sharing them, squeaking and clicking like he’d been born with a flippers and a blowhole.

Piccolo said, “Well, now I feel really on the spot. But he’s so great. I’d never even dreamed of being happy until we got together, and now I’m so happy. We have so much fun together. And he’s so sweet,” Piccolo felt his cheeks flush and he said quietly, almost whispered, “He calls me ‘dove.’”

It surprised Piccolo that Krillin sighed happily while Bulma looked irritated. She said, “I just can’t believe he’s gay!”

“Why?”

“Because he’s not feminine at all!”

“What is this Earth obsession with gendering everything and everyone! He gets enough of that bullshit on his Pinterest and Instagram—“ Piccolo stopped. He didn’t know if Vegeta would want Piccolo talking about those things, but then he realized that he loved those things about Vegeta and would defend them with physical violence if necessary.

Bulma and Krillin were both already on their phones. Krillin looked…gushy…like Piccolo felt. Bulma looked shocked. She wheezed, “Vegeta…crochets?”

“He does all kinds of things! He’s so cute when he’s working on one of his new things and cracking up about his Pinterest fails.”

Krillin chuckled as he scrolled. “Vegeta’s a funny guy. Who knew.”

“I knew! Well. After we got together, I knew.”

Krillin said, “Man, Piccolo, d’ya think you two are gonna get married? You sound pretty serious. I guess guys can’t get married here. But, you know, do you think you two are…are…”

Piccolo cut him off, “We already are! We’re _mated_! It’s not some dumbass petty commitment. He’s my true love.”

“What do you call him, if he calls you ‘dove?’” Krillin asked, and Piccolo appreciated that he was serious, he wasn’t poking fun at Piccolo.

Piccolo blushed and said, “My prince.”

Krillin smiled. He said, “How’d you guys, y’know, figure out you wanted to see each other?”

“Uh…” Piccolo felt strange telling the actual story. “Kind of through telepathy. We have a really strong connection. We trained together for a while and just…just fit, you know? But it was a bit of a hurdle to get together. He made the first move, but I was so glad.”

Krillin said, “Are you guys livin’ together? Bulma said he moved out.”

“Oh yeah, he moved in with me right away.”

“That’s intense, Piccolo. How long have you guys been together.”

Piccolo thought and said, “I guess…holy shit. It’s almost been a year. Wow. Time flies. He’s so good to me.” Piccolo smiled, remembering their first few days together, all the intensity and the love since then. All that they’d shared. Vegeta still hadn’t fucked his _theadur_ , but they’d agreed to wait until an accidental pregnancy would be okay, unsure if Saiyan pre-cum carried any risk of pregnancy like human and Namek pre-cum, given _theadurs’_ propensity to get pregnant. But Piccolo thought of even that morning when Vegeta had made sweet, tender love to Piccolo, taking him from behind, their entire bodies pressed together, as he whispered his love in Piccolo’s ear. Piccolo shivered and Krillin smiled at him. A soft smile. A smile that said, ‘I’m happy for you.’ 

It was novel for Piccolo to have someone be happy for him with no real reason. Just happy to see Piccolo happy. He continued to hear and feel Vegeta in the depths, sharing victory with the dolphins who had just completely obliterated a school of baitfish. Krillin said, “Man, I hope I get lucky like that. It seems like there’s no point to anything if you don’t have someone to share it with, y’know?”

“Yeah, I do. I know he’s prickly with other people, but he’s a good man. He’s had a hard life. I hope I make him as happy as he makes me.”

Vegeta rocketed out of the water, jumping with dolphins and Piccolo heard people in the water screeching and pointing. Cell phones popped up on the beach, the dinging of videos going on all over the beach. Krillin gaped and said, “Wha…what is he doing, Piccolo?”

“He learned to speak dolphin. He helped them hunt. Now they’re playing. He’s having an excellent time.” As if to bolster Piccolo’s argument, two dolphins flicked their tails in unison, flipping Vegeta high in the air. He did a few tight somersaults and dove splashlessly between them.

Krillin said, “Well, I’ll be…You weren’t joking.”

“Nope. See? He’s just…Vegeta’s just…he’s…reticent. Like I said, he’s had a hard life, and we…we made it harder.”

“What? How? He attacked us!”

Piccolo debated whether it was okay to tell Vegeta’s secret. Vegeta’s voice came in his mind, _Do as you wish, dove, I don’t want to interfere in your gushing_. Piccolo could hear the smirk in his voice.

“Yeah…Raditz was his mate of like, thirty years.”

Krillin screeched, “What!?! Are you…are you serious?”

“Yeah. So. That was hard for him. And Raditz was pregnant.”

“But…but…but Raditz was male.”

“Saiyans are different, biologically. Can you imagine how you’d feel if someone killed your lifelong mate? The only good person in your entire life? Your _enslaved_ life?”

Krillin looked to be on the brink of tears and Piccolo was glad. Krillin said, “Jeez, Piccolo, I had no idea. How…um…well…er…didn’t _you_ kill Raditz? Poor Vegeta. That must’ve been heartbreaking.”

“Yeah. That’s a long story. But my point is…we…we don’t always know why people do the things they do. But, I don’t know, after he was brought back to life, I could just tell he needed…someone to talk to. It took…it took some strife. But once we figured out that we felt the same way, it’s been all magic since then. All of it,” Piccolo said and sighed happily again. It felt good to get to tell someone how wonderful Vegeta was. Piccolo told Vegeta how wonderful he was all the time, but Vegeta always argued or just took him to bed. It wasn’t the same to gush _to_ the person you loved as it was to gush _about_ the person you loved. “I hope you find a mate, Krillin. It’s amazing. I don’t know if humans are like that, but I hope they are. I hope you get that.”

“Well, I guess if you two can find each other, maybe any…bo…” Krillin trailed off, seeming to realize that his statement was pretty offensive. “Yeah. I, erhm, I hope I find someone too.”

Piccolo was about to gush more when he and Krillin both swung their heads in the same direction as Vegeta hurtled through the air towards Piccolo. He protectively landed in fighting stance in front of Piccolo, blasting himself dry. Krillin saw and his face softened into a little smile. Piccolo touched Vegeta’s back lightly. “How can it be? It can’t really be, can it?”

“Yes, it is. His father too. His father is weaker than he is, but still formidable. We should go meet them head on or they’ll ravage Earth.”

Piccolo grabbed Vegeta’s wrist and said quietly, “Stay here. I’ll go. It’ll be too…emotional…for you. Please? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Vegeta glowered and whispered, “I’m far stronger than you, dove, and I fear it will need to be a group effort, with the Earth weaklings, even.”

“But…but…Vegeta…do you…do you feel the other one, farther away?”

“Fuck. That godsdamned clown. Him and his mercy have left us in this situation,” Vegeta bit out.

“We may need his help, my prince, even if it pisses you off.”

Vegeta gritted his teeth. “If I tell you to go, promise me you’ll go?”

“What?”

“Promise me! I won’t…I can’t…I can’t lose you too. Please, dove, please just promise me…” Vegeta said. Piccolo saw Krillin gaping in his peripheral vision, but it was a happy, ‘can’t-believe-it’s-true’ surprise, not something unpleasant. 

“Okay. Okay, I promise, but then you have to promise me you won’t be fucking reckless!”

“Yes. I promise. I won’t. I have something to live for now.”

Krillin said, “You guys are pretty adorable.”

Vegeta turned with a look of haughty nonchalance and said, “Piccolo is adorable.”

“Well, maybe. But it’s you two together that are really adorable. Who’da thunk. Congratulations on mating or whatever. I’m glad you two found each other. Now let’s go try to kick some Frieza ass!”

They all took off and moments later, a familiar looking spaceship touched down. Piccolo and Vegeta had a flurry of strategic ideas that they bandied back and forth. But before any of them could act, a young man with lavender hair appeared and cut Frieza and his father down after going super-Saiyan. They all gaped, shock not even being a strong enough word for what they experienced.

Vegeta spluttered, “But…but Kakarot and I are the last surviving Saiyans. And his whelp, of course. But that one is older than Kakarot’s boy.”

Piccolo said nothing. Watched. Waited. Listened. Because the boy’s chi felt all too familiar. And Piccolo couldn’t stand what it might mean: he didn’t understand how. 

When Goku returned, Piccolo worried that Vegeta would go after him, but Vegeta’s rage stayed dormant, though Piccolo could feel it bashing against him again and again, so that by the time the purple-haired boy took Goku aside, Piccolo was almost too exhausted to hear what he said. Almost. But not. So he did hear.

It took all Piccolo’s willpower to not sob and murder Bulma on the spot to prevent this strapping young Saiyan’s creation. Piccolo couldn’t believe that Vegeta was going to cheat on him, or worse yet, leave him, for _Bulma_. Vegeta caught Piccolo’s eye, and Piccolo’s obvious distress and said, “Dove? What’s wrong? You look as if you’re going to be sick.”

Vegeta was beside him, his hand on Piccolo’s back, the others’ eyes going wide as Vegeta comforted him, kissing his temple and whispering to him. Piccolo couldn’t speak, not yet. He tried to bury what he’d heard before Vegeta found it, but it was too late. Vegeta froze. It sounded like someone had knocked the wind out of him. Piccolo met his eyes and Vegeta said, “No. Never.”

“But he’s here, isn’t he?”

“Well, he’s obviously full of shit. Never, Piccolo. I’ll murder her right now if it will ease your fears.”

“Let’s not murder Bulma. Even though it crossed my mind too.”

Vegeta chuckled and Piccolo bent to kiss Vegeta before he could get up on his toes, earning even more attention from the surrounding crowd, but most of all from the future boy, Vegeta’s son. Vegeta murmured against Piccolo’s lips, “Mmm…still a villain at heart, aren’t you?”

“Like I’ve said a million times, there’s no room in my heart for anything but you, my prince.”

Vegeta wrapped his arm around Piccolo’s neck and kissed him and kissed him until Piccolo was getting rather uncomfortable because he really wanted more than kissing and could feel that Vegeta did too. The boy was walking toward them now, radiating fury in a way that was also very familiar. And apparently genetic. Piccolo heard Krillin defend them when Tien and Yamcha made homophobic comments, but most worrying of all, he heard Goku shout, “Stop that, Piccolo! You’re messing everything up!”

Everyone turned when he said that. Piccolo took comfort in the fact that this future boy had probably undone himself with his bold return to the past, his miscalculation that led to all of them being here, seeing him, to Piccolo hearing what he told Goku.

Goku foolishly grabbed Piccolo’s arm, his fingers digging into Piccolo’s flesh, even though Piccolo and Vegeta had already stopped kissing when Goku shouted at them. Goku didn’t get his guard up in time as Vegeta lit into him, savaging his face with a brutal series of punches before Goku even hit the ground. The boy, Trunks, was the one to stop Vegeta as Goku seemed so stunned he couldn’t recover. Vegeta didn't hurt the boy as he pulled Vegeta back and held his arms from behind. Vegeta spit on Goku.

Vegeta roared, “You won’t take another from me, Kakarot! You won’t! I will defend my mate this time, as I should have last time! You fucking monster! You fucking pervert! Don’t _ever_ touch him again. And I’m not fucking Bulma! Get off me, boy! You will not exist! I will _never_ touch that woman. Ever! If any of you touches Piccolo, ever again, I will end you. Fucking super-Saiyans think you can just…just…just decide people’s fates. Whispering like we don’t all have a right to know that our doom comes for us.”

He wheeled on Trunks, escaping one hand with the spin and slapping his startled son’s other hand away. “I don’t know what is different wherever you came from, but there is nothing between that woman and I. Nothing. So, you don't exist. You’re not here.”

“But how…how did you know?” The boy’s familiar turquoise eyes were wide. Scared. Awed.

“Piccolo heard you! Go back to where you came from. We will train to defeat these androids you spoke of, but you will cease to exist. I would _never_ cheat on my mate. The thought makes me sick.”

Bulma piped up, “Hey! You don’t have to be a dick, Vegeta!”

“Quiet, woman!”

“You obviously wanted me at some point. He’s clearly ours. Don’t be a jerk!”

Goku was up and touching the wounds on his face gingerly. “Jeez, Vegeta, what the hell was that about? Why are you and Piccolo _kissing_? What’d’ya mean take another ‘mate’ from you? Why are you so mad at me? That hurt!”

Piccolo saw that Vegeta was about to start crying and that it was going to make him explode. Piccolo pressed Vegeta against his side and said mentally, _Don’t. I’ll speak. You’re okay. Just calm down. I’ll explain if you want, then we’ll go home. Do you want me to explain?_

Vegeta nodded and leaned against Piccolo, his arms crossed tightly, his whole body thrumming with hate for Goku. Piccolo said, his voice ever lower than usual as he tried to contain his own rage, “Raditz was Vegeta’s mate, Goku, for over thirty years. And he was pregnant. We killed his true love. His child. I’m his mate now, and you’re not going to fuck that up either with trying to shove Bulma between us, or by hurting me.”

Goku narrowed his eyes and pointed at Piccolo and said, “I don’t really get it, because Raditz was a boy, but _you_ killed him, Piccolo! Vegeta, he’s the one who killed Raditz, why are you mad at me! I don’t kill people!”

Piccolo and Vegeta’s jaws dropped at the same time. Piccolo stammered, “Is that…is that how you…how you perceive that battle?”

“That’s how that battle went.”

“I never could have hit that shot if you hadn’t incapacitated him! You told me to end him!” Piccolo cried.

“You wanted to kill him!” Goku said, “ _You’re_ the murderer, not me!”

“Well that’s fucking convenient, Kakarot!” Vegeta bit out, getting in Goku’s face. “Regardless of who struck the final blow, _you_ violated him with your obscene tail-rape! That was the worst part!”

Piccolo expected Goku to be confused, but a brief, horrible flash of…knowing…crossed his face. Piccolo was shocked. Goku had known what it meant to do that to Raditz. He had known and done it anyway. Without hesitation. Piccolo slapped Goku. He was so focused on potentially defending himself from Vegeta that he didn’t see it coming. 

Vegeta covered his mouth and snickered. It was contagious and pretty soon a snicker rippled through everyone present, even Trunks. Goku’s chi skyrocketed and Vegeta moved between Goku and Piccolo, dropping into fighting stance. “I will destroy you, Kakarot. You may be stronger than me, but I’m far more ruthless.”

Goku glared from Vegeta up to Piccolo. “Why did you hit me?”

“You know why. Vegeta and I know the truth. Stay the fuck away from us. C’mon, Vegeta, let’s go train.”

Vegeta nodded and slid his fingers between Piccolo’s as they floated up into the air. 

“Father! Wait!” Trunks cried.

“ _I_ am _not_ your father! Your father is a dead man. In three years, I will destroy those androids, for all the good it will do you when you cease to exist.”

“Please! Think about…think about the future! Think about the Saiyan race!”

Vegeta looked affronted. “There is no Saiyan race! There is only me. And any demi-Saiyans that come from me will be half Namek, not half human,” Vegeta spat, wrapping his arm around Piccolo’s waist.

Piccolo saw now that much of Goku’s naïveté was a front that caused people to lower their guard, their expectations. The wheels in Goku’s head were spinning and Piccolo knew he was weighing whether Piccolo and Vegeta’s hybrid children would be stronger than him or Gohan. Piccolo saw him consider whether or not he should kill Piccolo right then. Vegeta saw too and began powering up as he said, _Go, dove, get as far away as you can and suppress your chi to nothing._

But Goku only said ominously, “I’m watching you guys. Earth is my priority. Not friendship.”

“Not such a pure-hearted soul now, are you, Kakarot? I see what’s in your vile heart,” Vegeta said with a sneer.

* * *

Vegeta kissed Piccolo furiously the minute they stepped inside. He locked the door behind them and Piccolo lunged down to meet his mouth. “I’m so sorry, my prince, I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to kill him,” Piccolo whispered.

“No, no, dove, no, don’t be sorry. Gods, I just…fuck, I hate that I’m so weak I couldn’t protect you if he came after you. We have to train. I have to surpass him. Fuck! I never found out what the woman’s tech is!”

“Oh yeah, I got it. She is ridiculously unguarded in her thoughts. It’s a gravity chamber, like what Goku used to train on his ship on the way to Namek. I think she’ll still let us use it. She thinks she can seduce you.”

Vegeta growled and rubbed his jaw on Piccolo’s. “That is complete…just…just…”

“Vegeta, what if…what if you fall out of love with me?” Piccolo said, and even the words made Piccolo come close to vomiting.

“Never. That will never happen. Come here,” Vegeta pulled Piccolo down to share _peluwsa_ and Piccolo believed him it was so intense and loving and committed. He pulled away as his mouth trailed along Piccolo’s jaw then back up to his mouth. He sucked Piccolo’s bottom lip and murmured, “I want to mate like Nameks, Piccolo. I don’t want you to doubt me.”

“Vegeta…I don’t want you to feel forced into mating with me—“

“Don’t say that, dove, you know that isn’t how I feel. I’ve been reluctant to risk your pregnancy, but I won’t release. The odds of a few stray sperm in my pre-cum impregnating you seem vanishingly small…” Vegeta slid his hands under Piccolo’s shirt onto his bare belly, “And…I…I’ve been wanting it anyway. I know you’re not ready. But I am. If you think…if you…” Vegeta trailed off, kissing Piccolo more, his breath coming in ragged draws.

Piccolo pressed his forehead against Vegeta’s again, an explosion of love and want and imaginings of tiny green Saiyans scampering around their feet, little furry tails whipping wildly around as they clambered on their fathers like monkeys. Piccolo pushed the knowledge he had of Namek pregnancy and labor and birth to Vegeta and received the same nervous excitement he felt in return. The same golden, honey-sweet peace and love and hope the thought of children together gave Piccolo came tumbling back from Vegeta and soon they both had tears streaking their faces as they stumbled toward their bedroom together, tugging at each other’s clothes.

By the time Vegeta hiked Piccolo onto his hips and knee-walked onto the bed to lay him down, they were naked and panting and hard. Vegeta laid Piccolo down and kissed down his jaw, marking along each side after finishing with his lips. More hotter, spicier love and lust rippled off Vegeta now, like heat mirages, and Piccolo couldn’t stop the breathy cries erupting out of himself he was so excited. _Theadurs_ didn’t get wet, but Piccolo’s whole pelvis felt crampy he was so eager for Vegeta to be inside him.

Vegeta kissed down his neck and the split in his ab muscles, retracing his steps with his jaw. Lust-induced paralysis held Piccolo so only his hips and hands functioned, gliding over Vegeta’s skin. His hips worked, but seemingly on their own, beyond Piccolo’s control. Vegeta’s face disappeared between Piccolo’s legs and Piccolo worried he would weep with pleasure if Vegeta went down on him.

The muscular, wet heat of Vegeta’s tongue met Piccolo’s _theadur_ and he did burst into grateful tears. Vegeta’s head popped up like a meerkat and he said aloud, “Dove?” and lunged back up Piccolo’s body to look into his eyes.

“Sorry, sorry, I…I…I really wanted you to do that.”

Vegeta’s face shifted into a bemused smile as he said, “But you’re crying?”

Piccolo laughed a snotty, wet laugh and said, “I’m sorry, I’m a little emotional after today…”

“Do you want me to stop?” Vegeta asked with furrowed brow.

“No! Fuck, no! It felt incredible, I’m just—“ Piccolo devolved into a growl and just brain-smacked Vegeta, not a hard one, just a soft one.

Vegeta yelped and then laughed and practically pounced back between Piccolo’s legs. Piccolo’s screaming, ecstatic cries startled Vegeta at first, but then they seemed to please him and he licked Piccolo aggressively into an extremely intense _theadur_ orgasm. As Piccolo twitched and groaned and his hips bashed against Vegeta’s face, Vegeta’s voice growled in his mind, _Dove, can I mate with you? I won’t release…unless you want me to release._

_I do, but maybe we should wait, we won’t be able to train much if we have a newborn._

Vegeta nodded and reluctantly pulled his mouth away from Piccolo’s sheath. Piccolo whimpered, missing the contact with Vegeta immediately. “Gods, dove,” Vegeta groaned and curled above Piccolo, holding his cock with one hand as he lined himself up with Piccolo’s post-orgasmically clenching slit. He plunged hard into Piccolo and Piccolo wailed helplessly.

“Vegeta, oh gods, my prince, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!” Piccolo gasped, his hips slamming up to meet Vegeta’s. “You feel fucking incredible. I need your dick. I need you to fuck me. Fuck me deep, my love,” he cried and curled up to meet Vegeta’s mouth.

Vegeta’s mouth made love to his, tender, slow, sweet love, as his hips began to fuck Piccolo, fuck him just the way he needed it. Vegeta panted against his lips, as his tongue moved around Piccolo’s like it was a prick. It made Piccolo’s whole body ache to come and he clung to Vegeta’s ass, gripping each perfect cheek in his hands and helping him bash against Piccolo and making him thrust deeper still. 

“Piccolo, holy shit, I know I said it didn’t feel different not to release, but I understand now. I can feel it. Your _theadur_ wants my seed. It’s trying to take it from me. Sweet gods, dove, your sheath is milking me, it’s sucking me, it’s _hungry_. Fuck, it feels so good…I won’t last, dove. I can’t, you feel too fucking good. Come for me, yes? Come for your mate? Come on your mate?” Vegeta panted against his mouth, kissing him more, “I won’t let go until you’re satisfied, but I’m…I’m so ready, dove.”

Piccolo’s voice was strained and he couldn’t form words, but his _theadur_ answered Vegeta’s call and he froze, his legs and hands holding Vegeta deep inside him, as the muscles of that organ surged up and down Vegeta’s deliciously hard prick, and stroked him, pleaded, and pulled at Vegeta. 

Vegeta’s hips drove forward hard, finding new length, and staccato cries erupted out of him. He groaned, “I love you, dove…”

Piccolo felt Vegeta’s dick trembling inside him, meeting his _theadur’s_ insistent squeezing. The energy Vegeta expended not to release inside him was catastrophic. Piccolo could see the strain of it, the way Vegeta’s whole body and most of his mind fought against the tiny bit of rational thought that said they should not get pregnant right then. Piccolo’s body was fighting Vegeta’s too, trying to take semen from him, coax it out of him. Vegeta’s eyes were scrunched closed, his teeth gritted, and he held himself motionless.

After a long time, Piccolo’s _theadur_ relented and Vegeta eased himself out of Piccolo, his eyes snapping open as they both yelped in pain. Vegeta clutched his balls and rolled off the side onto his back, a guttural noise of suffering oozing out of him as Piccolo took a shaky, breath and tried to stay his tears of agony. The ripping sensation, like Vegeta had torn out his insides, right through his _theadur,_ was so unexpected and shocking that Piccolo felt helpless tears prickle in his eyes. 

Vegeta crawled weakly toward Piccolo, and surprised Piccolo by bowing his head and running his jaw roughly up Piccolo’s taint and slit. The action made them both groan with relief. He did it again with the other side of his jaw, dragging all the way up the underside of Piccolo’s cock, getting Piccolo’s cum on his jaw as he continued onto Piccolo’s belly and neck, and finally his own jaw. Vegeta marked both sides of Piccolo’s jaw, smearing giz on both of them on both sides, but they didn’t care. Vegeta’s scent covering Piccolo eased both of them and Vegeta kissed him deeply as he nestled into Piccolo’s armpit.

“Fuck. You were not kidding about _theadurs_ wanting to get pregnant. What the hell happened? It’s like a separate organism. I could practically hear it. It almost convinced my dick to release.”

“Yeah…I thought it would feel your orgasm and be content. But…I guess it really knows what it wants. What it needs. Fuck. I guess…I guess we’ll have to hold off until we’re ready to make babies.”

“I don’t want to. Now that I’ve had it, I don’t want to hold off.”

“But…wasn’t it…I don’t know…awful?” Piccolo said, feeling forlorn, like it was unfair to have something so good be so difficult.

“I won though. It didn’t get any semen. Not a drop. And it was okay once I marked you, right? That took the pain away?”

“I guess so, but…It’s a lot of…pressure.”

“It’s like an unusual form of training. We’ll be stronger than Kakarot in no time if we keep fucking your _theadur_.”

Piccolo laughed and dragged Vegeta up onto him for a kiss. Vegeta’s purring resumed and they kissed for a long time before Vegeta lifted Piccolo and carried him into the bath. “We don’t have to do it anymore, dove. I don’t want to make you suffer.”

“No, it was a very high ratio of fucking insanely good to shitty, so…if you think…if you think you can keep winning, we can keep doing it. But maybe not every time. Like we can still do anal?”

“I certainly hope so. I don’t want you to stop fucking me just because of this. And I love your perfect ass, dove, I’m never giving that up.”

They scrubbed each other before slipping into the bath, Vegeta between Piccolo’s legs, leaning back into him, purring loudly as Piccolo’s hands roamed over his perfect mate’s perfect skin. “I…I didn’t believe what you said about Goku knowing what he did was wrong until today. But I saw it. I saw this vicious look in his eyes. He knew. He knew it was wrong and disgusting and he knew that Raditz had a mate, he knew how much more devastating such a thing was to a mated Saiyan. How could he know that?”

“Mated bearers, in particular, release a very different pheromone from their tails than un-mated bearers, and seeders have a different scent too, when mated. He knew he was violating his own brother in the worst possible way he could without actually fucking him. Just fucking vile. Kakarot is a seeder, so on top of being his brother, it was especially revolting. Usually when that sort of thing happened on Vegetasei, it was a bearer doing it to another bearer out of anger or jealousy that the first had taken a prized seeder…but the highest, most evil form of tail-rape was incestuous seeder-bearer tail rape. It was also…unfortunately…not uncommon. There was some belief that some seeders were attracted to their bearer siblings genetically to try to produce superior stock, much as some livestock and pet breeders do similarly unnatural breedings,” Vegeta growled and shook his head. “Raditz’s tail thought it was more than a battle strategy, and I wonder if you hadn’t been there if Kakarot might’ve…might’ve…” Vegeta paused, holding his mouth with his hand, “Might’ve taken it to the next level. I believe I maybe should be grateful to you that you spared my mate that further violation. Once Kakarot had his tail, he wouldn’t have had the strength to fight him off if he chose to…to…”

“Fuck, Vegeta, you don’t have to say it. Yeah, seeing that look flash in Goku’s eyes was unnerving. I really thought he was such a ninny, goody-goody, but there’s a darkness in him. And maybe smelling another Saiyan awakened that part of him, the dark, primal part of him that had lain dormant.”

“Maybe. Maybe. Filthy fucker.”

They were quiet for a long time, Vegeta kissing Piccolo over his shoulder, purring, and caressing Piccolo’s thighs. Piccolo could feel Vegeta’s exhaustion like his mate was trapped in sticky sap. He whispered in Vegeta’s ear, “Hey. Let’s take a nap.”

“Hmm? What? No, I’m okay. We should go train.”

“Vegeta. Let’s get a little rest, then we’ll go out. Okay?”

Vegeta said nothing but didn’t fight Piccolo as he shepherded him into the bed and spooned Vegeta, wanting to keep him safe from everything, safe from all the harm that had already befallen him, safe from the trauma of having his mate’s violator be stronger than him, but Piccolo felt helpless and useless, unable to keep Vegeta safe from anything. 

Vegeta pulled Piccolo’s mouth to his as he turned back toward Piccolo. “No, dove, don’t feel that way. You’re my everything. You keep me happy, and that’s worth more than safety any day.” He purred louder and pressed back harder into Piccolo’s body and fell asleep.


	11. Be Careful What You Wish For

“Piccolo, do you really think this is wise? I’ll give you the dragon radar if you really want, but…I just worry. What if…I don’t know, what if it makes him evil again?”

“He wasn’t _evil,_ Bulma, he was grieving. Can you imagine losing your true love? Your mate? And his only companion of thirty years of slavery? Honestly? I can’t even imagine. Of course he was a dick when he showed up.”

“I still don’t understand how he loves _you_ since you did kill Raditz. I know Goku helped, but still…seems weird. That’s why I’m wary of your wish. I’m wary of what it will do to him. What if he’s better off without it? What if that’s what made him act the way he did?”

“Just give me the radar. It shouldn’t take me that long to gather them.”

“You’d be surprised. Sometimes they’re in some pretty weird places. Even with the radar it can be a huge pain in the butt.”

“All the more reason for me to get started now. We only have, what--a year and a half until the androids get here?”

“Yeah, but Vegeta’s gone super-Saiyan, Gohan will any day, especially now that he’s training with Goku. Not that training with you wasn’t great, but Goku can teach him how to go super-Saiyan. It seems like we should have no trouble defeating these androids.” She sighed heavily and looked sad. “I’m a little sad that I won’t have my son.”

“You never would’ve known if he hadn’t meddled with time.”

“And we’d all die in a year and a half, so let’s not be too judgmental, hmm, Piccolo?”

“Fine. Just give me the radar, please? I can probably find at least one today while he’s training. The hardest part is going to be keeping it a surprise.”

“Which I also think is a bad idea, for the record.”

“I want to do something special for him.”

“Why don’t you just ask him if it’s something he wants. What if he doesn’t want it?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Well, you said it had a lot of his memories of Raditz…what if that’s painful for him?”

“I’m done arguing with you. Can I have it or not?”

“Fine,” Bulma said and handed Piccolo the dragon radar. He could have taken it by force easily, but then he figured she would have set Goku on him, and then Vegeta would have fought Goku, and while Vegeta had gotten stronger, so had Goku. That fucker was always getting ahead.

Piccolo took off after the nearest one, but it was still hundreds of miles away and he knew he needed to hurry so Vegeta wouldn’t be suspicious. He’d already discovered that Vegeta couldn’t sense chi when the gravity chamber was on high, so Piccolo knew his only opportunities would be while Vegeta trained alone. He and Piccolo still mostly trained together, but Piccolo occasionally trained with Gohan. It infuriated Vegeta, but he allowed it without too much grumbling. Gohan was his cover story for his dragon ball days.

* * *

By the time Piccolo only had one left to find, Vegeta had grown suspicious and Piccolo had to bury the truth of his plan very deep so Vegeta couldn’t get at it, because Piccolo’s mate certainly tried. He tried openly and with subterfuge, while they were just together, while they fucked, while they slept. The curiosity consumed Vegeta, it was almost all Piccolo could see when he delved into Vegeta’s mind.

“Why are you hiding something from me, dove?” Vegeta asked as they floated entwined in the bath after some very hot and excruciating _theadur_ sex.

“I’m working on a surprise for you, my prince, but you’re trying very hard to ruin it.”

“I don’t _like_ surprises.”

“You’ll like this one.”

“It doesn’t matter _what_ the surprise is, I don’t like being surprised. Please, dove, just tell me.”

“It’ll be ready next week. Can’t you just let me surprise you because I love you?”

Vegeta bit his neck, maybe a little harder than normal, and growled, “If it means so much to you to surprise me, very well. But I don’t like it.”

Piccolo felt the first flutter of nervousness that he was making a mistake, but surely Vegeta would get over his dislike of surprises and be grateful for what Piccolo had done? Piccolo felt certain it was the right thing for his mate.

* * *

Vegeta came rocketing home from the gravity chamber two days later as the sky darkened once Piccolo had the dragon balls all together. Vegeta’s eyes found his just after Piccolo had made the wish. They went wide and shocked and then horrified as Vegeta’s head whipped around, looking at his newly regrown tail.

Piccolo’s face collapsed out of its overjoyed smile to panic when he saw the look on Vegeta’s face. Vegeta plummeted to the earth bellowing, “Why would you do this?”

Piccolo lunged back and out of Vegeta’s path. He knocked Piccolo down. He had never hurt Piccolo outside training. It shocked him to be hit so savagely by his mate. Piccolo put up a shitty defense, stunned beyond action or words. Vegeta got past his blocks though, and Piccolo fell into broken-hearted darkness.

* * *

When he awoke, he was alone and surprised to be alive. The look in Vegeta’s eyes had made Piccolo sure that he would finish Piccolo off once he was unconscious. Distantly he could feel Vegeta’s chi doing something that Piccolo couldn’t understand. It was so angry, and Piccolo got horrible flashes of rage and vengeance and hate and lust. It was much, much weirder and more confusing than the day he and Vegeta got together. And now he could sense Vegeta was somehow trying to broadcast parts of his mind and shield others.

He shook his head vigorously, trying to recover from his severe concussion, knowing there was no recovering from his heartache. He flew toward Vegeta’s tangled up, warped, confusing thoughts and chi, his mind spiraling into despair as it became clear where Vegeta was and now Piccolo felt certain he knew what Vegeta was doing as well. He threw up as he got closer. 

How had this happened? Why hadn’t Piccolo listened to Bulma? He had been so certain that Vegeta would be delighted to have his tail back. There was a hole inside Vegeta from the loss of his tail. And though it broke his heart, he thought only once Vegeta was whole again could he truly decide whether or not to try resurrecting Raditz, his true mate. Piccolo loved Vegeta so much that if Raditz was what he wanted still, in his heart, Piccolo wanted to give that to him, at great cost to himself. Piccolo would do anything for Vegeta, sacrifice even his own heart for Vegeta.

He touched down at Capsule Corps, needing to know if what he felt was true. He walked in a daze across the balcony of what he assumed was Bulma’s bedroom. He heard them first and his heart twisted even more bitterly that Bulma would do this to him. He broke open the balcony doors, and there was Vegeta, behind Bulma, who was on all fours as Vegeta pounded her. They both finished just as Piccolo came into the room.

Piccolo wondered if Bulma would be fucking Vegeta if she could see his face. It was all anger and disgust, and grim determination. His eyes met Piccolo’s and flashed dangerously. Piccolo sobbed helplessly and dropped to his knees, his _theadur_ burned and ached and Piccolo was sure Vegeta had pierced his heart with a chi blast, that he would look down and there would only be a gaping, smoking hole where his chest used to be. He wanted to be strong, but he whimpered, “Vegeta!”

Bulma hopped off the bed and cast an ashamed glance at Piccolo as she hurried into her bathroom. Vegeta didn’t even notice as he stood and walked toward Piccolo, looking down on him.

Vegeta sneered cruelly at him, though Piccolo could feel Vegeta pushing almost everything he felt to the very bottom of his mind. “How does it feel, Piccolo? How does it feel to lose your mate? Does it hurt? _Does it?!?!_ ” Vegeta roared and bent low until Piccolo could feel Vegeta’s heaving breath on his face.

“I’m sorry, Vegeta, I’m sorry—I thought…I thought if you had your tail…I thought then you could decide if you wanted Raditz back! I…I thought…I thought if you had it and you wanted him back, they’d be ready by the time we defeated the androids, so you could wish him back and be…be happy. I just wanted you to be happy, Vegeta!” Piccolo shrank into a ball on Bulma’s floor, crumpling onto shards of broken glass, grateful for the physical pain distracting him from the agony in his heart.

Vegeta’s eyes went wide and darted back and forth for a moment and he blocked all Piccolo's attempts to forage in his mind. He stammered, “Wha…what?” His face paled and he glanced down. Piccolo followed his eyes and wailed in horror when he saw Vegeta's flaccid cock glistening with Bulma's juices, but also his cum. Vegeta had not only fucked Bulma, he had released inside her.

Piccolo stumbled to his feet and fled, suppressing his chi as much as he could, as seeing Vegeta or enduring more of his hateful words would break Piccolo beyond repair. When Vegeta came after him, Piccolo used Tien’s solar flare move to blind Vegeta and with a sudden eruption of power, blasted into the forest on the mountainside before suppressing his chi completely. He found a small, dank, but uninhabited cave and slunk inside, thinking that he might never come out again. It seemed like a dream that morning that he and Vegeta had made love, whispering their fantasies for post-android life, fantasies that seemed so foolish now to Piccolo. 

After that sneering question, Piccolo suddenly realized what an idiot he’d been. Vegeta had manipulated him, tricked him, feigned loving him deeply, and Piccolo had fallen so hard in love with Vegeta. He would never love anyone like he loved Vegeta. Never could. Never wanted to love anyone again. Piccolo wanted to die, but he wanted to go back and die before he’d seen hate in Vegeta’s eyes. Before he’d seen his mate fucking someone else. Releasing his seed in someone else.

The future boy's face appeared in his mind like a horrible specter of the future and Piccolo realized with another round of vomiting that he had likely just come into being. Piccolo sobbed more, tearing apart all his happy memories with Vegeta, nearly three years of happy memories, and looking for Vegeta’s trickery. But he couldn’t see it. Couldn’t believe how well Vegeta had hidden his true purpose. Piccolo supposed this was the most perfect vengeance Vegeta could imagine against the person who killed his soul mate. To become Piccolo’s and then rip it away from him in the cruelest fashion possible. Now Vegeta had repaid Piccolo’s crime in turn: he had taken away Piccolo’s soul mate.

Piccolo bawled until he couldn’t anymore, and his concussion proved useful as he fell into a horrible sleep, filled with visions of Vegeta ramming into Bulma again and again, tearing Piccolo’s heart out, again and again. Shivering in his sleep as he absorbed the fact that Vegeta had never loved him at all. It hadn’t been love, it was vengeance. Perfectly executed vengeance, and Piccolo would expect nothing less of his intelligent, cunning mate, so he didn't know why the perfection of Vegeta’s revenge should hurt even more.

When Piccolo went home the next day, there was no sign that Vegeta had ever been back there. All his things were still scattered around the house, the bed in the same disheveled state they’d left it the previous morning before Piccolo had gotten the last dragon ball. He wondered if Vegeta’s tail had reminded him to finish his vengeance or if Vegeta had only been biding his time to make the betrayal more devastating by impregnating Bulma. Piccolo had smelled that she was in heat, so he had no doubt Vegeta had known that, releasing intentionally to make the suppurating wound on Piccolo’s soul even more painful.

He moved through the house in a daze, picking up Vegeta’s things and putting them away. He pulled his sheets off the bed, but that broke him and he sobbed into them, smelling Vegeta and remembering how cute he had been marking up Piccolo’s house that first time and washing his sheets because he couldn’t stand the smell of Piccolo’s hookup from the night before. Vegeta’s ensuing reluctance to fuck him made sense now. Vegeta hadn’t wanted to fuck Piccolo. He put it off as long as he could and then probably continued doing so to maximize Piccolo’s suffering.

He curled into a ball on the twisted pile of sheets, allowed himself to cry and cry until he passed out again.

* * *

Over the following months, Piccolo tried to focus on his training with Gohan and a smug and self-satisfied Goku. He tried one time to speak to Piccolo, after Bulma confirmed her pregnancy, but the surge of angry, demonic power that welled in Piccolo allowed him to lay Goku out for once. It felt good and Goku never spoke to him again about Bulma or Vegeta or the boy, once he was born.

Gohan, with his sweet, kind soul, tried to comfort Piccolo in his child’s way. And Krillin stopped by a couple times for beers, but after the second time he argued that he really didn’t think Vegeta had tricked him, that Vegeta had just been upset about his tail and made a terrible decision. After that, Piccolo told him not to bother coming by anymore. The last thing Piccolo wanted to do was cling to stupid, pathetic, absurd hope.

No one had seen Vegeta since the horrible day Piccolo used the dragon balls, but finally Piccolo got out of Gohan that Vegeta had stolen the spacecraft the Briefs had been working on. It wasn’t finished, but it was functional. He’d left the same day, and Bulma had been unable to track his whereabouts. Piccolo knew he’d never see Vegeta again, but sometimes he sat on his roof, looking at the stars, and dreamt that Vegeta maybe felt something, a pang, anything, when his eyes fell on Earth’s solar system. That maybe some part of what Vegeta had done had actually made him happy, that some part of Piccolo had made him happy.

The prophesied day of the androids arrival came and Piccolo felt so hollow that he almost hoped they would just kill him immediately. There was nothing left inside him that was worth living for, though Gohan sternly commanded him not to engage in any suicidal attacks.

But Piccolo felt it was acceptable to engage in suicidal behavior once it became clear that Goku was very sick. He used himself to distract the androids so Gohan could get his father safely away. He didn’t really fight, he only made the appearance of fighting, so they would be focused on toying with him and how weak he was. Piccolo could have fought, and probably even ended them, but he didn’t care.

After a devastating painful blow, he saw the fat one winding up to end him, when a blue blur knocked it out of the air. Piccolo’s heart leapt into his throat. The blue blur was Vegeta, glowing in super-Saiyan form, all cocky arrogance and taunting as he annihilated the first android. Piccolo tried to keep his eyes away from Vegeta’s beautiful, sculpted body, and chiseled face, knowing that seeing hate in his soul mate’s eyes would crush him from shards into dust. But Piccolo wouldn’t be a coward. He wouldn’t flee from the fight. He didn’t even want Vegeta to know how thoroughly he’d broken Piccolo. Piccolo steeled himself and fought as if he were fine and didn’t have a care in the world.

When Android 18 began to kill Vegeta, Piccolo could no longer stand it. No matter what Vegeta had done to him, he wouldn’t let his mate die. But Piccolo was too weak. It did nothing, and Vegeta was only spared because the androids became bored. It shamed Piccolo, but Vegeta fled before Piccolo could say anything.

By the time Cell arrived, Piccolo’s despair had reached its early levels, like the first few days after Vegeta had left him. He flew to the Lookout, wondering if fusing with his other half might make Piccolo feel less miserable. Maybe it would bury Piccolo and he would lose the hopeless, helpless, aching love he still felt for Vegeta. Piccolo’s only wish was that he could have said goodbye to Vegeta before he fused with Kami.

Kami didn’t cure Piccolo. Piccolo only felt more powerfully that he was the right person for Vegeta, and the dragon balls were gone and Piccolo found in Kami’s mind that Raditz could never have been resurrected. It had been too long. Piccolo struggled to find the proper course with Vegeta—the fact that he’d come back to Earth at all suggested he had a reason for doing so. Perhaps Vegeta had only come back to try the dragon balls now that he had his tail and could still be properly mated to Raditz. Piccolo hated that he hadn’t been able to give that to Vegeta. But he could see no other reason for Vegeta's return that didn't involve foolish hope. Maybe it was just for the boy, for his son.

Gohan defeated Cell and Piccolo realized that Piccolo's entire existence was pointless and futile. He had been worthless in every battle since he murdered Raditz, the only victory in his life and yet he desperately wished to undo it, even though he might never have met Vegeta. Maybe that would have been for the best. So  Piccolo resigned himself to a lifetime of unrequited love and solitude. He had lived in solitude for so long, he knew he could live that way, but he still hated the quiet in the evenings, when there had been growling, crabby Saiyan muttering over increasingly elaborate projects, as Vegeta, by the end, had become a powerhouse of online crafting, with thousands of followers on his blog and instagram and twitter and pinterest. Piccolo wondered at that too, what a bizarre choice that had been, to become so invested in something so Earthling just for added believability to his Monte Cristo-like long con to destroy Piccolo.

Vegeta was badly injured by Cell, he looked shattered, like he had no reason to live, and Piccolo supposed maybe he knew the dragon balls were gone and he really _didn’t_ have any reason to live. Piccolo offered his help, despite the terror in his heart at what he might see in Vegeta’s eyes, but Vegeta looked despondent, his brows scrunched together and his frown deepened and he searched the ground before fleeing without anything more than a gruff refusal. Piccolo’s heart, the last desiccated bits, blew away like dust in the wind.

* * *

The next morning, he realized he had never returned the dragon radar to Bulma, mainly because he couldn’t look her in the eye without hatred. But that hate had burned off. There was nothing left in Piccolo but longing and despair and loneliness and all his aching love for Vegeta, left to accumulate until it pushed painfully against every part of Piccolo’s insides because he had nowhere to put it without his mate.

He knocked on the front door and waited. She answered holding Trunks and Piccolo deflated a little seeing Vegeta's demi-Saiyan son, his grumpy little face so like Vegeta’s already. Piccolo held the dragon radar out silently. “Not that it’s necessary any more, but Goku was jabbering about going to Namek to see if they have someone who would want to be the new guardian of Earth, so maybe they’ll make dragon balls.”

“Oh, um, thanks, Piccolo. I forgot you had it.” She looked at the ground and took a shuddering breath. “I’m really sorry. I…I shouldn’t have agreed. He said you guys were broken up.”

“Oh…yeah…don’t worry about it. It was all a lie. He never loved me. He…this…it was all part of his vengeance for Raditz. He…he just…yeah. It was just to make me feel as I’d made him feel when I killed Raditz. I’m sorry you got pulled into that. Are you okay? On your own? With Trunks?”

“Yeah, we’re great. My parents are really helpful, and he’s an easy baby,” she said, trying to laugh, but it sounded forced. She continued more softly, “I don’t think you’re right about him, Piccolo. I don’t…I don’t think it was vengeance.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s gone. He hates me. I still love him. The details are irrelevant. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, we’re great. He’s…um…he’s staying here, you know. I could go get him. He hardly ever leaves his room except to train. But he’s up there now.”

“Fuck, no, gods. I’ll get out of here. He wouldn’t want to see me.”

“Piccolo—I think—“

Piccolo left, tears already streaming down his face, imagining the sneer and the cruel things Vegeta would say to him. The way Vegeta would rub everything in Piccolo’s face. But his treacherous mind never held onto those images for long. Instead it would fill with the soft, loving smile Vegeta would cast his way when he curled up reading in the evenings in his favorite chair. The fire in his eyes when he made love to Piccolo, the trusting, vulnerable peak in his eyebrows when Piccolo would fuck him. The rumbling of Vegeta’s purr when they cuddled or soaked in the bath together. Piccolo wished the sneers and the anger would block out those sweet memories so maybe Piccolo could let go, but no matter how he tried to focus on that horrible day, it was always drowned by the love he thought Vegeta had had for him.

* * *

The impending doom of the androids had apparently been the only thing keeping Piccolo out of the very bottom of a trough of depression. Piccolo no longer even struggled to climb out of the slimy, cold place. He no longer ate, hating that Nameks could go a very long time without food and water before expiring. They were basically cacti. He never moved. He laid on the pile of sheets, still unwashed, buried his face, and wished he were brave or motivated enough to kill himself and end his misery.

Day and night blurred together for him until he had no sense of how long he had been this way, completely and utterly hopeless and alone and sad. Gohan had come by one day, but Piccolo couldn’t bring himself to open the door. Another knock came with no announcement of the caller, and Piccolo assumed it was a solicitor. 

The next day a knock came again. More insistent. More persistent. Piccolo ignored it, but the fool wouldn’t stop knocking. Piccolo shouted for them to go away. Krillin and Gohan appeared at Piccolo’s window, calling through the glass, “Come train with us, Piccolo! My mom said I could train in the afternoons if I finish my homework and chores in the morning! Come on! What are you doing?”

“I’m done training. Cell is defeated. There’s no reason to fight anymore.”

“Aw, come on, Piccolo, you know you love fighting. You don’t need a reason. You’ll be alright. I’m sure it was hard seeing him,” Krillin said with a forced smile.

“Go away or I’ll blast you idiots. I’m not training now, or ever. Leave me alone.”

“Piccolo, you’re my master, you have to train me! It’s your duty.”

“You can kick my ass, Gohan, I’m incapable of being your master. Go the fuck away.”

After more tedious arguing, they finally left and Piccolo could curl back into the somnambulant state he’d lived in since Vegeta had refused his help after the Cell games. Piccolo wondered briefly if he might seduce Vegeta, at least. Vegeta must’ve at least been somewhat physically attracted to him, given how much sex they had, so maybe Vegeta would do that with him, which would be better than nothing. But then Piccolo imagined that hateful sneer during sex and he began to cry again, despite days without a single tear.

Piccolo stayed there, motionless despite more knocks on more days, or nights, Piccolo didn’t know. He’d moved inside the sheet, like an emotional turtle pulling into his Vegeta-scented shell, though the Vegeta scent was almost entirely gone. Piccolo was too weak and dehydrated to cry about it, even though it made him feel like crying. He hoped he would die before his mate’s scent was completely gone.

The knocking just wouldn’t stop, but Piccolo couldn’t get up. He was just so tired. So very thirsty. He didn’t understand how he could be tired. He hadn’t done anything since the day he’d returned the dragon radar, whenever that had been. But his ears worked just fine and the infernalknocking was maddening. He wished death would spare him that as well as his constant heartache. Piccolo didn’t know how Vegeta had survived Raditz’s death, but then he remembered Vegeta’s face after he’d been brought back—Vegeta had been glad to be dead. For all Piccolo knew, Vegeta was dead again. As he’d grown weaker, Piccolo could no longer sense chi, which was weird and novel. It meant he never knew who was knocking, though the only times they’d harassed him it had been Krillin and Gohan. He was sure it was also one or both of them. Who else would bother with Piccolo? He closed his eyes and hoped for death or an end to the knocking, preferably both.

The next thing Piccolo knew, he was blinking in shockingly bright light. He’d been in his sheet-turtle-shell for a long time and undiminished light was painful. Why and how was light hitting his poor, sheltered retinas? And why wasn’t he thirsty? Why wasn’t he _dead?_ Piccolo willed his body to stop fighting him, willed it to just let him go. But his body felt healthier and gradually, he adjusted to the light enough to see that he wasn’t in his home. That the light came in huge windows and squinting out into the sunlight, he realized with deep dread that he was somehow at Capsule Corps. Someone had dragged his sorry ass to Bulma to revitalize. He would find that somebody, murder them, and then himself.

He closed his eyes again and willed the tears away that threatened to fall now that he had moisture in his body again. He had an IV in the crook of his elbow. Piccolo heard the click of a door opening, being closed softly, the ninja padding of someone trying to sneak. He was stuffed up, probably sick from his attempted, drawn out suicide, so he couldn’t smell. But he knew only one person who would have bothered with this nonsense. Gohan.

He turned his head away from the sound, not wanting to see Gohan or be seen, as tears had begun to slip free. He croaked, his throat feeling like it was coated in dry clay, “Go away, Gohan.”

Gohan said nothing, only stayed put, stayed silent. Piccolo could feel the eyes on him and he tried to muster the energy for a good surprise chi blast to teach that fucking brat to meddle. But he knew he couldn’t actually hurt Gohan.

“I said get the fuck out! Leave me alone! You should have left me where I was! You’re only delaying the inevitable. It wasn’t your place!” Tears poured out of Piccolo now, to his great shame. “It wasn’t your place! Why are you just skulking in silence?! Get out!”

“No, it wasn’t his fucking place. And I’m not related to the piece of Saiyan trash in any way, but I’m certainly not his son. I wasn’t skulking. I was trying to figure out what to say,” said a deep, gravelly, heartbreakingly familiar voice. “I—“

Piccolo covered his tear-streaked face with his hands and cut Vegeta off, “You don’t need to say anything. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even be here,” and he stumbled out of bed, knocked out the windows and used the dregs of his energy to fly away, though he didn’t make it far before passing out. He only hoped he’d made it high enough that the fall would kill him and there would finally be an end to his suffering and heartache.


	12. A Bitter Draught

_Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught._ ~The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas

* * *

Piccolo was an unwilling revenant. He wanted oblivion. But he woke a second time, with the last light of the sun draping onto him, and saw he was in his own bedroom, fresh sheets on the bed beneath him, his body weak, but not broken, so he’d either been healed or someone had stopped his fall. He thought if he could just keep his eyes closed and try hard enough, he could simply will himself to die, since fate seemed unwilling to let him escape the unending heartache from Vegeta’s retribution. So he bent his will to shutting his body down, organ by organ if necessary, but he hoped with as shattered as his heart was, it would be easy to turn that off first. Every beat felt toxic.

“Don’t do that, dove,” came Vegeta’s voice, soft and caring and worried, and Piccolo realized he was asleep. Only dreaming. Or maybe he was dead and had somehow been spared hell, since he’d been living it on Earth after Vegeta left him. Maybe in Piccolo’s afterlife, Vegeta actually loved him. “No, dove, you’re not dreaming. You’re not dead, despite a very impressive effort.” And then Piccolo felt the rough, powerful fingers that had brought him so much bliss, slide in between his own.

He flinched away, drew himself into a ball, wondering what fresh hell Vegeta would shower him with this time. Piccolo couldn’t bear to look at his face. He couldn’t bear the hatred. The sneer. How wholly Vegeta wanted him to suffer. Piccolo had never wanted that. Had never meant to harm Vegeta. If he had known what Raditz meant to Vegeta, he would’ve never sacrificed himself for Gohan. He would have gathered the dragon balls himself for Vegeta. But none of it mattered. There was no going back and Piccolo’s heart was dead, if not his body.

“Piccolo, allow me to explain—“

Piccolo covered his ears, not that it would keep him from hearing, but it would signal to Vegeta that there was nothing to say. “Just go, Vegeta. You did it. You got your revenge. Well done. I didn’t see that coming, so you nailed it. And you broke me. I knew before, from your thoughts and feelings and memories how you felt, but now I get to feel it myself. So we’re even. You can go. The dragon balls wouldn’t work to bring Raditz back, even if they still existed. I checked with Kami before I merged. So just fucking go. Although I guess you’re making me feel even worse, which I didn’t think was possible, so maybe it wasn’t enough. Maybe setting my heart and soul on fire wasn’t enough? Are you back to piss on the ashes? Fuck, Vegeta. Vengeance received, okay? Just leave me alone. I’m sorry I killed him. I’ve _always_ been sorry. I would’ve done anything to take that suffering away.”

“Dove—“

“Stop calling me that! I won’t fall for it again! Is that your hope? That you can lure me in again? What? Maybe get me pregnant so the next time you take my mate away, you can maybe give me a good literal gut punch too so I abort our child? Is that the plan this go round? Is it? Because I’m not a fucking idiot, Vegeta! You’re just a very convincing actor! I should’ve known you would never love me at all, let alone like I love you. Fuck. _Fuck!_ ” Piccolo didn’t want to cry, but the sobs tore out of him and he felt Vegeta’s monstrous weight settle on the bed beside him.

“Piccolo, that isn’t why I’m here. It was _never—_ “

“Fuck off! Get out of my house! Go back to Bulma’s, go back to her pussy! Go back to your _son_!”

“I’ve tried every single day to talk to you, but you never opened the door. I tried the day it happened but I couldn’t find you—“

“Get out of my house!” Piccolo screamed at the top of his lungs. “Leave me to die, you asshole! There’s nothing left of me to break! You can’t hurt me anymore because I am fucking _dead_ inside. So go find Goku and work on making him fall in love with you so you can tear his heart out too.”

“That’s disgusting, I would never, ever—“

Piccolo lit into Vegeta, attacking him savagely, but Vegeta wouldn’t fight back. He barely had to defend himself as he tried to immobilize Piccolo. Which, given how strong he had grown, didn’t take him long and Piccolo sobbed and wailed as Vegeta pinned him on the bed, thrashing and hating that what he really wanted was for Vegeta to kiss him and hold him and fuck him. He hated his back-stabbing heart that wouldn’t just stay dead when this was the man who had torn it to shreds. “Please, I’m begging you, don’t hurt me any more—please! Just go away. Leave me to die. I hate that Gohan saved me, I hate him for it!”

“Kakarot’s whelp didn’t save you! I did! I would have come in uninvited sooner had I known your intentions!” Vegeta said, affronted.

“Come on, Vegeta, surely we can call it even. I guess you couldn’t tolerate thirty years with me to get truly equal revenge. Gods, I do applaud your skill at hiding your true feelings though. I really bought it. I went all in.”

“Why do you keep talking as if I don’t love you? I made a mistake when I misinterpreted—“

“No! I’m not listening! Fool me once, as they say. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Raditz back along with your tail, but this…you being here…it’s too much, Vegeta. It would be like Goku describing in detail what he’d planned to do. You don’t need to salt the wound anymore. Please. If you have even an ounce of mercy in you, please just go.”

“Stop fucking interrupting me, dove!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I thought you liked it? You ‘gushed’ about it to the humans!” Vegeta said, and Piccolo dared to look at his true love’s face. It was pure confusion. But what did Piccolo know. He thought he knew this man, but Piccolo knew nothing. He was a fucking fool. A rube. As dumb as Goku.

“No, I liked it when I thought you called me that because you _loved_ me. Now it just feels like a taunt. Which I suppose is why you keep doing it,” Piccolo said miserably and struggled more, but his body was weak and useless, Vegeta’s strapping and powerful and full of energy. At his best, Piccolo could never defeat Vegeta, but certainly not now, diminished and soft as a wilted plant.

Vegeta’s face twisted, his eyes squeezing shut and he hit Piccolo with a massive brain smack of love and sorrow and regret for what he’d done, but Piccolo stopped it. He hastily barricaded his mind as best he could to protect himself from Vegeta’s unfathomable telepathic wiles. If their telepathic bond hadn’t been so strong, Piccolo would have been less surprised by the vengeful turn, but that Vegeta had kept his hatred and disgust so well hidden with love and lust and devotion…that hurt most of all. The effort he must’ve put into it. And how, that first day? How had Vegeta managed that? When he hadn’t even meant for Piccolo to see? Or maybe he had. Was it possible that even that was part of the giant ruse?

Even now he could feel Vegeta’s mind chipping away at Piccolo’s defenses. Piccolo felt the moment he broke through and he cried harder, not wanting Vegeta to see how thoroughly he’d broken Piccolo. How every bit of him was shattered and shat upon. How there was really nothing left, even after merging with Kami, Piccolo’s destruction had been so complete that it infected even the new life and energy and knowledge, destroying it all like an aggressive cancer metastasizing into every nook and cranny of Piccolo’s psyche until there was nowhere for Kami to hide.

Vegeta’s eyes flew open, tears pouring out of him and he held Piccolo’s face frantically. “No, no, no, no, no! That isn’t! No! No! Piccolo! Please, no! It isn’t at all like that! It never was! I only…once my tail was back, the…the…the suffering and I…I thought, I thought you did it to…to…to take that last thing from him, since you’d conquered me so completely. And I was angry at myself for…for letting him go. For not…for not caring anymore. For loving you as much, more, than I ever loved him. But it felt, it feels…my tail…it _remembers_ him. Only then, only when I thought…when I thought I wasn’t enough for you…then I was angry, and I went to Bulma, to hurt you, yes, I have no excuse for that, and my words…I just. When it came back, Piccolo…it was awful. Just awful. It was like losing him all over again.”

Piccolo wanted everything Vegeta said to be true, but he knew better. Maybe Vegeta had liked fucking him and was just getting lonely again. “You wanted to hurt me. Well you did. You found the ceiling on that.”

“But…but once you told me why you’d done it…I realized what an idiot I’d been. I realized that you never meant to hurt me, that you only killed him in self-defense, and I felt it, Piccolo. I’ve felt it all these months that you just wanted me to be happy. But I didn’t know what to say! I didn’t know what to do! After…after…after what I did with Bulma. I was so ashamed that I thought so poorly of you. Because…because if our roles were reversed, I would want to possess every part of you, to crowd out all your former loves until you were completely mine. So I assumed that was what you wanted too, and I…I still hate myself for letting him go…”

Piccolo snorted. “You never let him go, Vegeta, he’s always there, like background noise in our relationship. And I’m not buying your bullshit. I’m not doing it again. I can’t. I wish you hadn’t bothered coming here. I was so close to death and you took it away from me. Consider that your second helping of vengeance, okay?”

“I never wanted vengeance against you, Piccolo!” Vegeta said and his eyebrows peaked in the middle as he caressed Piccolo’s face. 

Piccolo whipped his head back and forth, trying to avoid the touch. “Well, that’s not what you said when you took off your mask that day. It was stupid of me to believe anyone could love me like that. Love me like you loved Raditz. But especially stupid of me to believe that _you_ could love me like that. I’m as big an idiot as Goku.”

Vegeta laughed and said, “Oh, dove, that is not even possible.”

“Yeah, well, tell that to my heart.”

“I’m trying to tell your heart that I love you. That I never stopped loving you. That I was ashamed. I went to space because I knew you’d never take me back after what I did. And then…during the fight, I was so ashamed of how stupid I’d been, letting Cell achieve his perfect form, after having my ass handed to me by 18. I just…I was ashamed. But Bulma told me you came by. Told me you thought I’d never loved you, and I…I couldn’t stand the thought. If you left me for my betrayal, it’s what I deserve, but if you only left me because you thought I didn’t love you…I…I couldn’t stand that. I love you with all that I am.”

Tears trickled out of the corners of Piccolo’s eyes. He kept his head turned away from Vegeta, wishing he could turn off his ears as easily as he could keep his eyes averted. “Please go, Vegeta. You never should have taken me to Capsule Corp. It wasn’t your place either. It was nobody’s place. You just caused me a few more weeks of suffering. Isn’t that enough for you?”

“I don’t want to cause you _any_ more suffering. I hate that I’ve already caused this much. Please listen to me, Piccolo. Please believe me. Please take me back,” Vegeta said and pressed his forehead to Piccolo’s temple, his love and worry and lust and care and longing flooding over the flimsy wall Piccolo had thrown up in his mind. The wall crumbled and Vegeta’s mind poured into his and it was a confusing jumbled mess like the first time.

He pushed the feeling of his tail regrowing and with it the shocking, fresh, raw grief. Overwhelming, horrible grief. Then his anger that Piccolo wanted this, wanted something uniquely Saiyan that he’d shared with Raditz, the awful realization when Piccolo showed up at Bulma’s, that Piccolo’s desires had nothing to do with it. That it had all been for Vegeta. For Raditz even. But Vegeta was powerfully ashamed of having mated with Bulma. Not only for his betrayal of Piccolo, but for using Bulma so crassly as an instrument of his anger. His broken-hearted flight from Earth when he couldn’t find Piccolo. His return to redeem himself, only to be shamed by defeat with the androids and Cell.

Worst was seeing how Vegeta had perceived Piccolo's glances at Vegeta on the battlefield. Piccolo had deliberately tried to appear calm and stoic and unmoved by Vegeta’s presence, but in Vegeta’s eyes, it read as hatred: burning, unending hatred. Piccolo pushed back against the tide of Vegeta’s thoughts, too wary to believe any of it, even it felt true. When Vegeta wouldn’t stop, Piccolo head-butted him hard.

Vegeta yelped in surprise but wouldn’t let Piccolo up. He hated being a foot and a half taller than his little mate and still unable to escape him. “Fucking get off me, Vegeta! I don’t buy your bullshit!”

Vegeta rubbed his head where it was split and bleeding into his eye. He cauterized the wound with a narrow chi beam and then stared into Piccolo’s eyes. “Do you really think I _faked_ everything? Really? Piccolo, good gods, who could fake that?! I would’ve had to fake every fucking thought in my head. If you weren’t telepathic, maybe someone could manage, but nothing in our life together was ever hidden from you.”

“Such bullshit,” Piccolo muttered and turned away.

“It’s not bullshit! I love you, dove, I never stopped. I made a mistake!”

“Knocking someone up deliberately is a pretty big mistake, Vegeta. After beating the shit out of me.”

“That…I’m sorry. I forgot that I hurt you as well.”

“ _All_ you did was hurt me. The beating was the least of my pain, though the fact that you _would_ beat me was more painful than the beating itself. It was a truly shocking day. You ended up giving me the real surprise.”

“I told you I hate surprises! If you’d just asked me, then we could have discussed getting my tail back.”

Piccolo only now noticed the tail, lashing wildly behind Vegeta, looking…looking like it was waiting for something. “Is your grief better? I’m sorry I caused you more suffering. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I was obviously an idiot for surprising you, too. I just wanted to do something special for you. I was trying to time it so if you wanted Raditz back, you could bring him back right after the androids and go on your merry way. I would mind your vengeance less if I thought it made you happy, but I don’t think it made you happy, though maybe briefly it did. You looked happy after you fucked Bulma and flaunted your cum and her wetness in my face. That seemed like a good time for you.” Piccolo tried again to squirm free of Vegeta’s hold, but he clamped down tighter as soon as Piccolo tried a new maneuver.

“I just…I wanted you to understand my grief.”

“Oh, I do. I do, Vegeta. You nailed it. No pinterest fail this time. That vengeance would get upvoted on reddit. I understand it perfectly. So maybe you understand my wish to die.”

“But I don’t wish to die, not anymore, because of you. I want to live because of you, and if…if you can forgive me…I hope you’ll want to live for me.”

“Please get off me,” Piccolo said, his voice a faded ghost of its normal self. He was so tired. He missed his mate. He desperately wanted to believe Vegeta.

“Will you not run away again? You almost killed yourself.”

“That was the point. If you hadn’t taken me there, I could have succeeded and saved us both a lot of trouble.”

Vegeta growled and slammed Piccolo’s wrists up beside his head. “I will protect my mate from every threat, even himself! What can I do to heal this? I swear I’ll never cheat again. It was awful. I didn’t want to do it then, but I forced it.”

“Gross. The cheating is not the issue, Vegeta. What you said to me afterwards revealed all. I was such a fucking idiot for thinking you could love your soul mate’s murderer.”

“Piccolo…please…” Vegeta pleaded and Piccolo hated to hear the misery in Vegeta’s voice, even if it was fake.

Piccolo sighed and cried and looked away.

“What if…what if we start over? So I can prove myself to you. I…I can come by tomorrow and we can go out to dinner?” Vegeta asked with his eyes wide. It was amazing how much more Earthling Vegeta had become in a few short years. He didn’t even know what a date was when he and Piccolo first started out.

“Vegeta, gods, it wasn’t that you didn’t convince me before. You did. I’m just not willing to give you a second round of vengeance. Or at least that kind. You’ll have to come up with another ploy.”

“No, dove, it was never fake! I couldn’t. I could never have done all that we did if it weren’t real. I loved you, still love you, deeply. You’re my mate, Piccolo. My only. My Piccolo.”

“No, I’m not. Piccolo is dead.”

“I stopped you, you’re not dead.”

“I’m dead on the inside, Vegeta,” Piccolo said, his voice flat. “Please just leave.”

Vegeta crawled off him at last and sat on the edge of the bed. “Please don’t make me lose another mate, Piccolo,” he said, his voice trembling.

“You’ve done just fine the past year or so.”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve been miserable. I want you back, Piccolo. I fucked up, but I want you back. Please, take me back. Weren’t you happy? I was so happy with you. So happy. And I know you were too. I know it.”

“I don’t know what I know anymore. But I know one thing, and that’s I want you the fuck out of my house. I don’t have the strength to make you leave, Vegeta. So please just go.”

Vegeta shriveled and Piccolo almost broke down and comforted him, but he couldn’t believe it. Every time he wanted to believe it, Vegeta’s cruel words, his horrible sneer, exploded into his mind and he trembled at the thought of opening himself up to such pain again. He hadn’t even overcome the first heartbreak.

Tears leaked out of Vegeta but he left, holding his hand over his mouth, his tail almost dragging on the floor it was so listless. He suppressed his chi, so Piccolo had no idea where he’d gone. But that was better, then he couldn’t fall prey to his weakness. To his desire to chase Vegeta down and confess his still brightly burning love.

* * *

When Piccolo woke from a restless, nightmare-filled sleep early the next morning, his house smelled divine. He stumbled out of bed to see what the smell was and found his table laden with freshly baked coffee cake, an omelet with all Piccolo’s favorite things, a mango smoothie, and a french press pot of coffee. There was a little bouquet of wildflowers in the center with an elaborately carved wooden vase, and as Piccolo got closer, he saw it was Namek runes and it said, “To the one that makes flowers bloom in my heart.”

Piccolo burst into tears. He looked around for Vegeta, but he wasn’t there. He must’ve gone shopping though because Piccolo’s kitchen was restocked. His house was clean. Vegeta’s scent was still in the air. Why was Vegeta doing this?

Piccolo’s stomach didn’t care. He hadn’t eaten in months, according to his phone. He’d lost a lot of weight and felt like humans must feel all the time. It was awful to be so weak and Piccolo supposed if he had to be alive, he might as well not be a weakling. He ate an imprudent amount, threw up, and ate a more moderate amount. He knew he couldn’t train as he was, so he went out for a run to start building his muscles and stamina again.

It felt good to be out in the sunshine, though he hated admitting it. He also hated admitting how good it had felt to be touched by Vegeta, even though he knew better. How good it felt to hear Vegeta say Piccolo was wrong. But Piccolo couldn’t believe it. Vegeta had left him for over a year. Had only returned to Piccolo once Piccolo had found the very lowest stone of rock bottom. It seemed like he intended to build Piccolo up just to tear him down. But why? What purpose could it serve? Piccolo had yearned for vengeance before, and had even gotten to kill Goku when he killed Raditz, and he hadn’t felt any better. He certainly wouldn’t have bothered making another elaborate plot to try to kill him a second time, which was absurdly possible thanks to the dragon balls.

What if Vegeta was telling the truth? What if he really had simply overreacted after misinterpreting Piccolo’s ill-thought-out surprise? No. Piccolo shook his head. It would be madness to go down that road again. But…he was lonely and broken without Vegeta…So he supposed getting another round of Vegeta’s love, even false love, might succor him temporarily, because Vegeta was so convincing. It was easy to believe Vegeta loved him. And this time he would be ready for the rug to be pulled out from under him. He would know that it wasn’t going to last, so it wouldn’t bamboozle him so completely.

He shook his head, whipping his antennae back and forth with the force. No. No. He needed to get over Vegeta. That was that. He needed to move on with his solitary existence. He would go back to bars to get laid when he needed it (though the thought currently made more vomit rise in his throat), and he would meditate in the evenings, and he would finally have the strength to pack up Vegeta’s stuff and take it to Bulma’s. He would wash his hands of Vegeta and live his heartless, pointless life. Maybe at some point, he might feel better. He doubted it, but he couldn’t see far into the future through all his tears.

* * *

Meals popped up in his house, again and again. All Piccolo’s favorite things. New things. Little trinkets appeared, like the vase. A hand knit sweater. A large abstract painting hung on the wall. Elaborately beaded coasters for his living room. Formerly their living room. The strange, curly paper octopus that had been one of Vegeta’s very first pinterest fails appeared framed in Piccolo’s bathroom while he slept and he began to think that he was going to just have to stay up all night to catch Vegeta at his absurd attempts at…at what? At wooing Piccolo? At showing he wasn’t going to leave Piccolo alone truly, but that he would respect Piccolo’s request for him to go away until Piccolo called him home? Piccolo still couldn’t understand the point of it all.

After the octopus appeared, dredging up every particle of silted over love and lust and longing, Piccolo took it off the wall and flew in a rage to Bulma’s. He pounded on the door of the gravity room. No answer. He pounded louder and louder until he knew he would break the doors if he hit them again.

“Piccolo! He’s not in there. He went off to the forest today, he said he was going to hunt mushrooms.”

“He’s hunting mushrooms?” Piccolo said, feeling his heart flutter. Piccolo loved mushrooms. Wild mushrooms in particular, but he’d never said as much to Vegeta. He’d hunted them himself occasionally, but he didn’t have the patience for a decent harvest.

“Yeah, he’s been acting so weird and asking really weird questions. What is that?” she asked, gesturing to the frame Piccolo held.

“Nothing. Did he say when he would be back?”

“No. He’s worse than a house cat. No manners. Doesn’t give a shit about normal hours. Comes and goes as he pleases. Just needs to be fed. I guess at least I don’t have to clean up his shit. Seriously though, what is that?”

“None of your concern. Godsdamnit. I’ll stop by tomorrow, I guess.”

“I can tell him you—“

“No! Don’t.”

“What’s going on with you two anyway? He’s super agitated and looks awful.”

“Stay out of it, Bulma. And if you fuck him again, use a fucking condom. He can smell when you’re in heat.”

She flushed up to her hairline. She stuttered, “You…I…he…he meant…oh fuck…is that? Is that why he was so…insistent that it be right then?”

“Yup. He meant to knock you up. Surely _you_ know when you’re in heat, right?”

“No! I didn’t know humans were like that. But I wouldn’t change a thing. I love my little Trunksy.”

Piccolo smiled fondly at the mini-Vegeta scowl on Trunks’s face as he toddled around after a butterfly. Piccolo sighed, wishing Vegeta had at least given him that before tearing him apart. But having a daily reminder of Vegeta discarding him would be awful, so maybe this was better.

At home, Piccolo made himself a very stiff pot of coffee and drank it all. He was going to stay up all night and catch that crafty Saiyan. He chuckled at the double meaning in Vegeta’s case. He waited in the shadows of his living room. He’d never bothered to change the locks, so Vegeta had a key, and even if he didn’t, a door would never stop Vegeta.

Caffeine began to fail him, so Piccolo paced to keep awake, but Vegeta really was like a house cat and didn’t seem willing to make an appearance when Piccolo wanted him to show up. Piccolo flopped back onto his couch and scanned Netflix for anything interesting, but he couldn’t focus even enough to choose a show, let alone follow what was happening. The couch was so comfortable that he decided he could settle in and rest and he would hear when Vegeta came in, if he came in at all.

But the next thing he knew it was morning and there was a mouthwatering mushroom omelet on the table, wild strawberries and raspberries, and berry pancakes. There was a note, under a sculpture of two abstract lovers writhing together, that said, “Mushrooms and a salad in the fridge for lunch.” Piccolo looked in the fridge. Sure enough, there was a big bowl (hand-thrown on Vegeta’s potting wheel—when had he done _that_?  The potting wheel and kiln were in Vegeta’s workshop at Piccolo’s house.) of wild mushrooms, all Piccolo’s favorites, even morels. That damned man. What was his play? Piccolo needed to talk to him.

He mentally shouted, _Vegeta! Godsdamnit! Where are you!?_

_Gods, dove, no need to shout. I’m training in the gravity room. Why?_

_Why are you doing this to me?_

_Doing what?_

_All this! The little gifts. The food. The mushrooms_ , Piccolo said, losing his composure even in a telepathic conversation.

_Do you like them?_

_Damnit, Vegeta, that isn’t the point! Why bother?_ Piccolo hadn’t known until that moment that he could whine telepathically, but he felt distinctly whiny.

_Dove, I have no idea how to win back your trust and your love. The least I can do is provide for you this minor way._

_No! Stop doing it!_

“Why?” came Vegeta’s voice, right behind Piccolo where he was leaning heavily against the fridge.

“Fuck! You startled me!”

“Sorry. Why won’t you let me try, dove?”

“Stop calling me that! _Why_ are you trying? Seriously, please, I’m sorry about the tail, I’m sorry about Raditz, and I know I don’t deserve mercy, but if you have any in you, please stop torturing me,” Piccolo said and fell to his knees crying.

Vegeta fell in front of him and held him, kissed his temple and purred against him, rubbed his jaw on either side of Piccolo’s skull. “I don’t want to torture you, dove. I want to love you. I want to win your love again after cheating. After betraying you because you tried to do something sweet. Misguided, but sweet.”

“Don’t you…don’t you at least feel _whole_ again? Your tail’s absence was like a festering sore in your mind. A whole separate grief from Raditz,” Piccolo said, slumping against Vegeta.

Vegeta froze. After a long silence he cocked his head and tipped Piccolo’s chin up to look into his eyes. “I…I didn’t even know that, but now that I think about it, you’re right. It really was. I do…I do feel much better now that the initial razor edge of grief has worn off. I’m so sorry, dove. My Piccolo. I’m so sorry I hurt you. Abandoned you to your misery,” Vegeta murmured and leaned closer. He brushed his lips over Piccolo’s. When Piccolo didn’t resist, he kissed him, a soft, imploring kiss. Piccolo couldn’t bring himself to stop Vegeta. Vegeta’s hand slid up onto his jaw and held it as he massaged Piccolo’s lips apart with his own, thrusting his tongue hungrily into Piccolo’s mouth.

Piccolo just couldn’t believe it was fake. How could Vegeta fake such…feeling? Even without telepathy, which was flooding Piccolo with lust and love and longing and affection and remorse, Piccolo would never think this kiss was anything but desperate, hopeless love. And he fell into it, fell into Vegeta’s arms, tears slipping down his cheeks. His tongue found Vegeta’s mouth and he gasped at how he had missed this pleasure, the uniquely wonderful sensation of kissing his purring mate.

Vegeta pulled Piccolo gently into his lap, his thumbs brushing the tears away as he deepened the kiss again, finding Piccolo’s fangs to give Piccolo that erotic taste of his blood. Piccolo felt his need pressed against Vegeta’s and wondered if a man could truly fake a hard-on? Surely not. Vegeta must lust for him, if nothing else. And that was something. That was better than unending loneliness. He clung to Vegeta and Vegeta moaned as Piccolo’s arms encircled him, pressed their bodies tight together, put more pressure on their throbbing cocks.

Piccolo wanted Vegeta inside him so badly, but he imagined what it would feel like if Vegeta laughed at him afterwards, taunted him, exposed his stupidity again, and Piccolo shrank away from Vegeta, feeling the fresh, visceral hurt of Vegeta’s words after he’d fucked Bulma.

Vegeta’s eyes snapped open, but they were dazed and hazy with lust, not calculating, not cruel.

Piccolo whispered so quietly he didn’t know if Vegeta would hear, “Are you…are you just going to hurt me again? Abandon me? Cheat on me?” Piccolo didn’t know why he asked, it wasn’t as if Vegeta would _tell_ him that if it was his plan.

Vegeta’s eyes were glassy as he said, “No, dove, never again. I wish I’d just paused for a few minutes to let the agony of fresh grief wash over me. I just…exploded. It was horrible. Like the day it happened. And…it blinded me to any purpose you might have that wasn’t selfish. I’m so sorry, Piccolo. I truly am. I would give anything to go back.”

Piccolo gave a snotty snort of laughter through his tears, “You made Bulma really happy. She loves Trunks. So I guess that’s a silver lining. I’m glad you didn’t hurt her too.”

“Oh, I think I did, but that woman is forgiving. Foolishly so, perhaps. I…I thought you never wanted to see me again…if not for her, I never would have known what you thought…what you thought I did. I love you, Piccolo. I’ve never stopped. It’s real. It’s true. I was just…rash…and hurt…and I forget that you aren’t like me. You aren’t selfish and jealous and possessive. I’m those things, so it’s easy for me to project. I couldn’t stand it if you thought of another man while we were together, but you really don’t mind me thinking of Raditz. It took me a long time to really believe you, but our minds are so entwined now that I know it in my heart, you really aren’t jealous or angry or annoyed…and that blows me away, Piccolo, that you could love me that…unconditionally. That you brought my tail back so I could possibly leave you? That you’d help me to leave you for another man…but I saw it in your eyes that day. You really would have brought Raditz back for me, wouldn’t you? You would sacrifice your own happiness for mine?”

Piccolo nodded, swiping at his eyes. “I…I won’t lie and say that I didn’t hope you’d choose me, because I did. I hoped you’d choose me, but I knew you probably wouldn’t. But I’d rather you be happy and whole with him than incomplete and content with me. It’s hard enough to live with the fact that I took that from you, but if I also…if I also didn’t even try to give him back? No. I couldn’t live that way. I just should have gone to Kami and asked. If I didn’t hate that smug fucker so much.”

Vegeta smiled and held Piccolo’s face again. “Don’t doubt me, my heart. You are my everything. I choose you. I do. And I need you back in my life.”

Piccolo’s heart soared and plummeted, unable to decide whether to trust or run away in fear. He searched inside Vegeta’s mind for the bitter taste of vengeance, for the wish to harm Piccolo, but there was nothing like it, not toward Piccolo, though the astringent sludge around Goku was thick and toxic, so it wasn’t that Vegeta’s mind simply hid all desire for revenge. “Okay, Vegeta, we can try…I’m…I don’t think I’m ready for you to move back in, though. I’m scared. I’m afraid I’m making a huge mistake. I’ll die if you break my heart again, Vegeta, which I guess is maybe what you want.”

“No, dove, I want you alive and happy. I’ll never hurt you again. Never. I’ll do whatever you feel is best, I want to be with you however you’ll have me.”

“I…” Piccolo thought about Vegeta leaving right now to go back to Bulma’s. Coming by for dinner dates or to watch a movie and he couldn’t stand it. He never could. From the very beginning he wanted Vegeta all the time, and that hadn’t changed. He felt his cheeks heat and he looked down at his lap to avoid Vegeta’s eyes. “I’m full of shit. I desperately want you to move back in. I’ve been so lonely without you, Vegeta.”

“Thank fucking gods,” Vegeta growled and kissed Piccolo furiously until Piccolo was panting and breathless, “Because walking out that door was going to take every bit of my stubborn Saiyan will and I still wasn’t sure I could do it. Gods I’ve missed you, my heart. I love you so.” He purred and marked Piccolo more, nipped at him, buried his face in Piccolo’s neck, “Gods, you smell so good. Why were you hiding in a pile of dirty sheets? Did you think I wouldn't find you?”

“I never thought you’d look. But I wasn’t hiding. It was because they smelled like you. I never washed them. They were the closest I could get to being near you.”

“Dove, that is the saddest, sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. How could I ever hurt you? No one should ever hurt you. I’m a fucking monster,” Vegeta murmured as he kissed Piccolo more, purred more enthusiastically.

“We are just two fucking villains…” Piccolo said, grinning at last and it felt so good to tease his love again.

“Mmm…are we two _fucking_ villains?” Vegeta said, arching an eyebrow as he started to tug at Piccolo’s clothes, pushing him onto his back.

“Gods I hope so,” Piccolo breathed, but fear coiled in his belly that he was setting himself up to die inside all over again. But as Vegeta’s hands found their way to his bare skin, warmth flooded over the fear, so Piccolo couldn’t feel it so acutely. Vegeta slid Piccolo’s shirt up slowly, trailing his palms over the bare skin on Piccolo’s flanks, breaking their kiss only for the moment it took him to pull it over Piccolo’s head.

He pulled back again to sensually remove his own, every muscle visible sliding under his taut, scarred golden skin. Piccolo almost groaned at the sight of Vegeta’s body, even more powerful and cut now than it had been before the tail disaster. Piccolo hesitantly put his hands on Vegeta’s waist, curled tentatively up, and slipped Vegeta’s nipple into his mouth. His tongue circled it before sucking it hard.

Vegeta gasped and arched against him to meet his mouth and his purring grew louder, more rumbling, as it did when he was really turned on. Fresh tears filled Piccolo’s eyes to think that maybe he knew nothing about Vegeta’s signals and maybe the purring was just a way to get himself going to endure Piccolo’s physical affection.

“Dove, gods, no, please…I…No…Never that. I love you, I love when you touch me. I love touching you,” Vegeta murmured, pulling back to look into Piccolo’s eyes. Piccolo found telepathy to be a curse at the moment. He couldn’t quiet the fear and the hurt in his mind, but he wanted this, he wanted to feel Vegeta’s body meld with his, even it was all a ruse. He wanted to be able to pretend, at least for a short while, that Vegeta loved him again.

Vegeta froze again and his eyes darted back and forth between Piccolo’s. “Oh my heart, how I’ve scarred you. The wound is so deep, isn’t it?”

Piccolo stared into his mate’s eyes, searching for any telltale hint of the cruelty to come, but there was nothing. Just as there hadn’t been anything before. So Piccolo just didn’t know. But he couldn’t resist Vegeta. He loved Vegeta too wholly. Vegeta was like a vital organ that Piccolo had been clinging to life without, but had finally gotten back, and had a second chance at life.

Piccolo bowed his head again, his mouth roaming down Vegeta’s neck and chest, back to his nipple and he clutched at Vegeta’s broad back, trailed his fingers over the heavy, hard ropes of muscles and down until he realized with a jolt that he was about to touch Vegeta’s tail. It seemed natural and pleasant to do so, but Piccolo quickly withdrew his hands and kept them on Vegeta’s chest, trying to subdue the panicky sadness he felt at no longer being able to caress Vegeta there, to risk violating Vegeta every time he touched his ass. Could Piccolo even safely fuck him? He didn’t want to be a tail rapist like Goku, or like he had been unwittingly with Nappa.

“I can’t do this, Vegeta, I’m sorry. You need to go,” Piccolo choked out, but he couldn’t stop his bitter tears as he sobbed into his hands.


	13. Steel and Velvet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I set up a ko-fi account in case you're inclined: www.ko-fi.com/dbzkink. Thank you for all the love you show me on here, I love writing my stories, but sharing them and having other people love them too has been pretty magical! So thank you for your time and your kudos and your comments!

“No,” Vegeta said, crossing his arms.

“What?” Piccolo croaked, “I said go!” Piccolo’s will to make Vegeta leave was flimsy even at its firmest, so every time Vegeta resisted, Piccolo knew the chances of escaping potential heartbreak grew smaller.

“And I said no. I won’t. It’s obvious you still love me, and I still love you. You told me once that deception wasn’t possible via telepathy. Why do you think that I’m some kind of telepathic-lying prodigy? I’m not even a good liar out loud. I know what it felt like when you were hiding your intentions about the dragon balls and it was like you had a loud, drunk rhinoceros stumbling around in your mind thinking it was a svelte leopard. I couldn't see behind it, but I had no doubt that something _was_ behind it. Lies are absurdly obvious, if not the truth they cover. I never found your intentions for the surprise, but I knew for certain that all your made up bullshit was exactly that.”

Piccolo tried to consider this, but Vegeta’s mouth was on him again, kissing him and his hands were pulling off Piccolo’s pants. Piccolo’s mind whirled, trying to dust off all of Kami and Nail’s knowledge of telepathy and mind-reading. He found that Vegeta was right—at least according to Kami and Nail—deception was unmistakeable in telepathy, usually taking the form of someone thinking that if they thought the lie hard enough it would seem to be the truth. The truth could be hidden, but it couldn't be _hidden_ that the truth was hidden.

Piccolo yanked himself away from Vegeta, stared into his eyes. Then he cried even harder and Vegeta’s eyes grew wide as Piccolo wrapped his large body around Vegeta’s, mindful of his tail. “I’m sorry, Vegeta! I’m sorry!”

“No, dove, don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault. I know you meant well, and I’m glad, it’s wonderful to have my tail back now, it just…I’m sorry I overreacted at the time. I’m sorry I doubted you. Doubted how you love me so completely.”

Piccolo kissed Vegeta frantically, ripped Vegeta’s pants to shreds, his own too, spitting in his hand and stroking Vegeta, who gasped and growled and purred louder, deeper in his throat. Piccolo laid back and pulled his legs up and wide, needing Vegeta inside him, needing to be connected to his love again after such a pointless, foolish rift. Joy surged through him like an orgasm that he'd been wrong, that Vegeta did love him, and while he hated their time apart, the overwhelming relief of knowing Vegeta still loved him, had loved him always, washed away the regret and sorrow like a tsunami wiping out a fishing village.

“Please, Vegeta, fuck me. I’ve missed you so much.”

“Dove…I want to mate with you, I want you. I want you to be mine, entirely mine. Please?”

Piccolo’s eyes opened and he met Vegeta’s. He felt his brows furrow with fear, hard to tamp down after his year of suffering. “Do you…you mean…like…like actually mate?”

Vegeta’s fingers dragged up the slit of Piccolo’s _theadur_ making him arch up to the touch, eager for more. Piccolo panted as Vegeta’s fingers caressed and massaged, deliberately not penetrating Piccolo. “Yes. I want to possess you. I want you entirely. Before…before my stupidity, it was all I could think about, how much I wanted it. How much I want you. I want a family with you. I want to bind you to me. You may not be selfish and possessive, Piccolo, but I am. I felt you thinking of other men, of using them to allay your loneliness and it was insufferable. I can’t stand the thought of another ever touching you. I couldn’t bear it before, but this, our parting, it made me even more certain. I’m too selfish to ever let you go. Even if I could bring Raditz back, I wouldn’t, not anymore, Piccolo. You’ve consumed me. You’re _mine_ ,” Vegeta growled the last part and the predatory gleam in his eyes made Piccolo’s sheath throb with hunger.

“I…you? Really?”

“Yes. You’ve been mine from the beginning and I believe the ache in me now is that I haven’t done it properly. I haven’t claimed you. What happened with Bulma never would have happened if I hadn’t been denying my own instincts. My own desire. Give yourself to me, Piccolo. Entirely. Let me have you. Be my mate, truly.”

Piccolo’s heart slammed so hard against his chest that he assumed it was breaking his ribs. Could this be some final, brutal ruse? But Piccolo wanted it. Wanted to believe it. And he was so miserable without Vegeta. If Vegeta left him again, after this, he would just end himself, so the only difference would be that he had a short window of pure bliss. Of his dreams and his hopes coming to life, however ephemeral.

“I am yours, Vegeta,” Piccolo breathed, his whole body trembling, “I always have been.”

Vegeta’s feral growl seemed to emanate from his whole body. He kissed Piccolo viciously as he picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. Piccolo panted seeing how hard Vegeta was, how pre-cum streamed down his cock, and Vegeta’s hands shook as he ran them over Piccolo’s skin after laying him down on the bed. Vegeta climbed above him and his mouth nipped and bit and sucked and licked and kissed over every inch of Piccolo’s skin before taking Piccolo’s prick in his mouth, taking Piccolo’s entire length deep into his throat, the vibration of his purring almost driving Piccolo over the edge immediately after so much oral foreplay. After months of aching hunger for his little Saiyan mate.

“Gods, dove, your prick is divine, I missed the taste of you. Will you come for me? Will you give me your seed so I can really taste you?” Vegeta whispered against the underside of Piccolo’s shaft as he licked along the throbbing vein there.

Piccolo couldn’t speak, he was gasping and writhing, but he whimpered and his hips rose helplessly toward Vegeta’s mouth as he suckled Piccolo’s head hard. He finally choked out, “Dual-dock, dual-dock with me, my prince, please, and you have to release. I need it. Gods, now. Now, Vegeta!” Piccolo’s need for Vegeta’s prick in his mouth was painful.

Vegeta growled happily and spun around, allowing Piccolo to lap at the voluminous pre-cum, to feel the slick heat of it as he licked and teased Vegeta’s slit until Vegeta thrust ceaselessly toward Piccolo’s mouth. As he sucked down Vegeta’s length, clamping his throat muscles hard on Vegeta’s tip, Vegeta’s purrs gradually shifted into a constant growl. Piccolo palmed Vegeta’s perfect, tight ass, loving the way they fit together like this, like the hottest, sexiest puzzle pieces ever.

Piccolo fumbled for the lube, he needed to be inside Vegeta as he sucked him off. He needed to feel that clenching, gripping pleasure. Nobody’s ass had ever worked Piccolo’s fingers and cock the way Vegeta’s did, so responsive and hungry, that Piccolo was going to come just thinking about it if he didn’t hurry. Piccolo slipped a slick finger inside Vegeta and Vegeta pulled off Piccolo’s cock to hiss, “Oh, yes, yes, yes!” before he went back to sucking Piccolo like his life depended on drawing out every bit of semen inside him.

Piccolo slid a second finger alongside the first and could no longer resist the tidal pull of his orgasm. He groaned around Vegeta’s perfect prick and thrust his fingers deeper and harder against Vegeta’s prostate, needing his prince to come in his mouth, to release in his mouth. Piccolo’s ass tightened and he held himself still inside Vegeta’s mouth as Vegeta growled happily around him, swallowing and sucking more until Piccolo whimpered and drew away as the sensations became too intense in the aftermath of his climax.

Vegeta pulled off him and roared as his ass tightened on Piccolo’s fingers, his seed filling Piccolo’s mouth in big wet, pulses. Piccolo imagined that inside his _theadur_ and he came again, his ab muscles straining and Vegeta diving to lap at his semen as it poured out of him, and still Vegeta’s ass twitched and seized on Piccolo’s fingers.

When he at last pulled his mouth off Vegeta’s still rock-hard dick, he gasped, “I’ve missed you so much, my prince. I’ve missed your touch, your taste,” he thrust his fingers against Vegeta’s prostate again, eliciting another long whine of pleasure from his mate as Vegeta’s chest fell against Piccolo’s belly, “being inside you. Gods, I’ve missed everything about you.”

“Me too, dove,” Vegeta breathed, gasping as he kissed the inside of Piccolo’s thighs. He turned around weakly, like Piccolo had sucked out his bones, not just his cum. Vegeta smirked down at Piccolo and kissed him deeply, the taste of their seed mingling together in their mouths, and he murmured, “Gods, you’re even better at that than I remembered.”

Piccolo flushed at the compliment and Vegeta chuckled, kissing his cheeks softly. He made his way back to Piccolo’s mouth, kissing Piccolo sweetly, tenderly, and his hand trailed over Piccolo’s pecs, pinching and twisting each nipple until Piccolo’s moans bled together into one long, unending cry of pleasure. Only once they were both hard pebbles did Vegeta let his hand move lower, fondling Piccolo’s testicles and then grazing his knuckles up and down Piccolo’s slit, teasing his _theadur_ until it ached.

“Are you ready for me, dove? Are you ready to be mine?” Vegeta growled, sucking Piccolo’s earlobe, swirling his tongue in the shell and making Piccolo squirm. Piccolo didn’t know how he’d survived without this pleasure for so long. How he’d survived at all without Vegeta.

“Gods, yes, Vegeta, yes, my prince. Fill me up. Release inside me, yeah?”

“Yes, again and again, my heart,” Vegeta whispered and shifted between Piccolo’s legs as he pushed them wider apart. “Can I have a taste first?”

“Vegeta, that’ll make me come—“

“Good,” Vegeta growled and scooted his body down, his tongue sliding sensually along the tight seal of Piccolo’s sheath.

Piccolo writhed, mewling with pleasure. If Vegeta was lying or faking, Piccolo no longer cared, because this amount of effort was love in one form or another. Hate was a form of passion too, Piccolo thought.

Vegeta pulled away, his face grumpy as he stared down at Piccolo and grumbled, “I’m not faking!”

“Sorry! Sorry, Vegeta…I…it’s hard for me. I’m trying to get over it. I’m trying. You…you really hurt me,” Piccolo said, ashamed of himself.

Vegeta softened and brushed his lips over Piccolo’s, turned Piccolo’s face up to his and made Piccolo look him in the eye. “I know, dove. I know. I’m sorry. Let me love you, though. Let me?”

Piccolo nodded and a weak little smile spread on his face. Vegeta kissed it again and growled, “I guess I’ll have to prove my love until you believe it, so I hope you didn’t have any plans for the next few weeks,” and he smirked at Piccolo as he kissed his way back down Piccolo’s torso and onto his _theadur_ once again.

Vegeta licked his slit again, but this time he immediately curled two fingers inside Piccolo, thrusting and twisting until Piccolo involuntarily sat up as his abs tightened and he wailed, “Vegeta, fuck, Vegeta…I…I need you…I can’t…I can’t!”

Vegeta hummed against his sheath, his tongue darting inside again and again before he said, “Mmm…you can, you will. You’ll come for me only once I tell you, won’t you, dove? You’ll come for your prince when he commands?”

Piccolo was half-sitting and pushing down on his hands to bash his crotch up against Vegeta’s hungry mouth. Vegeta growled happily, his purring deep and throbbing against Piccolo’s most sensitive parts, and he slid his free hand under Piccolo’s ass, drawing him closer still, and he commanded, “Spread your legs wider, dove. As wide as you can, I want everything inside you. Do it for your prince.”

Piccolo was shocked at how viscerally thrilling Vegeta ordering him around as royalty was. He loved it. He used every muscle in his hips to pull himself completely open and he felt Vegeta work three fingers inside his sheath, his tongue still sliding in and out along with the slower thrusts with his hand. “Vegeta, oh gods, oh gods, my prince…” Piccolo gasped.

“Not yet, dove. Your prince hasn’t given you permission yet. You have to wait until I’m all the way inside you. Obey your prince, my heart.”

Piccolo panted and bucked toward Vegeta’s hand, holding out only through sheer devotion to Vegeta. He pleaded, “More…give me more, my prince…”

They had never done more than three in Piccolo’s sheath, but he knew that was not because it wasn’t possible, but more because Piccolo always came before that point, so he stifled his rising climax. He wanted to give Vegeta what he wanted. And Piccolo wanted it too, to find the blissful edge of his body’s abilities.

“Mmm…can you handle more, dove? Because you can’t come yet. You have to promise.”

“Yes. Yes. I promise, my prince, please, more…”

Vegeta’s pinky joined his other three and Piccolo trembled with his desire, with the strain of not coming immediately with that new pressure. “Oh, dove, you feel divine on my hand, on my face, hold on for me. Hold on for your prince.”

Vegeta’s tongue curled farther inside him, reaching and searching out every nerve in Piccolo’s sheath until Piccolo thought he might weep with how good it felt. Piccolo’s entire body weight rested on his hands now as Vegeta held his ass in the air and Piccolo was almost in a split his legs were splayed so wide. He threw his head back and begged, “Please, my prince, don’t…don’t hold out!”

“Are you sure? You’ll obey? You can’t come. Not yet. Not until I give you permission,” Vegeta growled against his sheath.

“Gods, yes, I’ll be good. I’ll do everything you say. Please…please, my prince!”

He felt Vegeta’s grin against him and the tip of Vegeta's thumb moved to meet his other fingers. Vegeta withdrew his fingers entirely and then just teased Piccolo’s slit with the tips of all five and his tongue and the shocking, sudden emptiness made Piccolo whimper with need, and he drove his hips toward Vegeta, who withdrew even farther. “You said you’d be good. I’m your prince, you heed my commands, you take what I give you” Vegeta murmured, his tongue sliding hard against Piccolo’s slit, but never breaching the opening.

Piccolo bit his lip to keep himself from pleading and he tried to still his hips. His cock twitched and dripped and it felt swollen it was so ready to explode with cum. Gasping, needy noises slipped out of him and Vegeta purred hard as the tips of his fingers finally pushed against his slit again and Piccolo quaked with the effort of not coming immediately. Piccolo glanced at Vegeta’s cock and it was a mistake, seeing that it was pouring pre-cum made Piccolo’s loins clench and he almost slipped, but he held himself back, hanging on the very cusp of his climax. 

“That’s my dove, I knew you would do as your prince commands. My sweet dove, my heart, gods, the way you feel on me…” Vegeta pushed deeper with all five fingers, stretching Piccolo open and his tongue found a way inside with them, between them and Piccolo whined more, unable to help the noise, using it as his only release.

After pulsing with shallow penetration for a moment, Vegeta slid deeper inside Piccolo, up to the second knuckle and Piccolo’s sheath began to twitch helplessly and he groaned, “My prince…I…my prince, I don’t think…” The fingers and tongue were gone and Piccolo nearly wept. He bit his lip until it bled and whimpered, “I’ll be good, my prince. I’ll obey…Please!”

Vegeta’s hand crept inside him again with the hot, wet accompaniment of his tongue and Piccolo barely held himself together. “Oh, dove, you’re so good to your prince, treating him just right, doing just as he says,” Vegeta whispered and his tongue drove deeper, the fingers sliding smoothly up to Vegeta’s third knuckle and Piccolo had never been so full in his life, having never even tried such a thing while masturbating. Vegeta’s hand vibrated there, pulsing in and out as he stretched Piccolo more, somehow brought Piccolo even closer to the brink, where he had to scrabble just to keep from falling over. 

Vegeta finally pushed his whole fist inside Piccolo, who gasped and whimpered and pleaded, “I’ve been obedient, my prince. I’ve been good. Please, please, please!”

“Do you want to come on me, dove? Do you want to come on your prince’s hand? To grip him and squeeze him and spray your seed?”

“Yes! Yes, Vegeta, my prince, please! Give me permission!”

“Not permission, dove. Your prince commands you, come for me now, my heart, come for me!” Vegeta rasped and thrust his hand hard into Piccolo, so deep, and twisted so his knuckles ground along every single pleasure point in Piccolo’s core, while Vegeta’s fiery tongue twisted back and forth along the opening above his wrist.

Piccolo let go and shattered into a billion stars, slamming his hips against Vegeta, his whole body shaking and quivering and clenching as his dick erupted, sending his cum flying through the air in hot, heavy ropes, hitting his own face he was so pent up. The explosion of pleasure that radiated out in seismic waves from his sheath made him scream and throw his cum-streaked face back as he wailed and bashed himself against the epicenter of that delicious sensation.

Vegeta groaned against him and thrust more and twisted and growled and nipped at him, causing a whole new series of aching tremors to run up his belly and shiver down into his spine, making him quake anew as he continued to bellow. A hot, wet splatter hit his back and he cried out more as Vegeta moaned into him, coming just from the pleasure of bringing Piccolo to climax. Their catastrophic ecstasy sloshed back and forth between their minds and Piccolo could feel Vegeta’s release as if it was his own and he felt relief and peace for the first time since the horrible day he’d used the dragon balls.

Piccolo couldn’t speak as they shakily lowered down to the bed, his whole body twitching and electric, like any touch would send him spiraling into orgasm again, if the orgasm had ceased, which it didn’t feel like it had, as every single breath Vegeta heaved against his sheath made a ripple of agonizing pleasure surge through his body.

Vegeta began to ease out of Piccolo, who whimpered, unsure whether the sensation was divine or demonic, maybe some chimera of the two. “Vegeta!” he gasped, and Vegeta stilled, kissed his belly, and his tongue slid along the cum trails leading to Piccolo’s face. Vegeta licked every drop off of him, even cleaning his face before kissing him deeply and thoroughly as he extracted his hand gently.

Piccolo breathed hard and fast as he adjusted to such emptiness after the bliss of being so full and he thought he might cry. But then Vegeta’s tip was against him and Vegeta caressed his face, brushed his antennae with his forehead until Piccolo was a panting mess again. He brought their foreheads together and Vegeta shared _peluwsa_ with him for the first time since the terrible day and Piccolo wept at the aching love and missing that flooded him, the regret about what he’d done with Bulma, what he’d said to Piccolo, the way he’d ignored him during the fight with the androids and Cell. The burning shame made Piccolo cry out, “No! No, Vegeta, I still love you, mistakes and all!” and he clutched Vegeta against him.

Piccolo pushed his own sadness and loneliness and hurt into Vegeta, the fear of rejection and further torment, but also the all-consuming love that still burned for Vegeta, the deep, desperate desire for his happiness, at any cost, and the way he dreamed of their life together, their family together, their aging and dying together. Vegeta’s tears dripped down on Piccolo’s cheeks and he slowly slid inside Piccolo’s _theadur_ while they continued to catch up on the time they had been without one another and by the end, Piccolo felt wrapped in the warm embrace of Vegeta’s love again, his ecstasy climbing as Vegeta rolled into him slowly, the tip of his cock sliding along the perfect place inside Piccolo, playing it like a violin string. 

“Vegeta…” Piccolo groaned, “I missed you…I missed you so much…”

Vegeta and Piccolo gasped and moaned together as something entirely new happened, Piccolo felt a velvety ring of steel squeeze around his thigh and before he could even subdue it, his orgasm smashed through his control and he came hard, semen jetting up between their bodies as Vegeta growled, deep and guttural, “Oh dove, how I’ve longed for this…” and his tail began to slide up and down Piccolo’s leg, the tip caressing his bud as it delved between his flexing cheeks. “I…I can’t believe I punished you for giving this to me. This is the best gift you ever could have given me, to feel you this way at last. I feel whole, now, complete with you,” Vegeta gasped against his mouth. Piccolo’s eyes popped open once Piccolo fully absorbed what was happening. Vegeta’s gaze devoured Piccolo.

Vegeta was tail-twining with him, though Piccolo didn’t have a tail, that was what he was giving Piccolo. Piccolo arched up to meet Vegeta’s thrusts and Vegeta’s tail continued to explore Piccolo’s body until it drew near his face and he buried his nose in it, dragging in a huge breath of Vegeta’s scent, his very essence. His tail pushed into it, and thrummed happily against Piccolo, like it had just been waiting to be allowed to do this. It covered Piccolo in Vegeta’s scent, marking him everywhere.

Piccolo trembled as his ecstasy built again. Vegeta groaned, “I want to fill you, my love, I want you to be mine. Be my love, father my children, my mate, my only, my life…Can I? Can I release inside you?”

Words were lost to Piccolo as his body stretched and snapped into another rapturous orgasm and he nodded and nodded and nodded, incoherently wailing and staring into Vegeta’s eyes, hoping Vegeta would understand and release deep inside Piccolo. Piccolo pushed his assent mentally into Vegeta’s mind and Piccolo’s mate’s eyelids fluttered down as he roared and arched deeply into Piccolo, who felt every fiery, liquid pulse of Vegeta's seed being hungrily milked out by his clenching, squeezing, achingly content _theadur_. Piccolo never even imagined such carnal pleasure as the moment his _theadur_ received what it yearned for. His sheath took Vegeta’s semen so greedily that Piccolo felt a second orgasm rise and burst forth from Vegeta who whimpered above him, shaking and thrusting hard, his ass tight as steel where Piccolo’s claws dug into him, pulling him deeper and deeper inside that hungry organ of pure pleasure.

Piccolo thought he might faint if the euphoria didn’t relent, his eyes locked with Vegeta’s as they became one mated soul. And Vegeta glowed above him, as brightly as his own skin and Piccolo laughed out loud, having not even registered it right away because he thought it was a trick of his lust and ecstasy addled mind. “My prince, you’re beautiful,” he breathed, still rolling his hips hungrily against Vegeta.

Vegeta plunged hard and stayed seated deep inside Piccolo as he growled, “You’re _mine_. Say it, say you’re mine!”

“I’m yours, I’m yours, my prince!”

“Always. You’re mine forever, dove,” he said more softly and then Piccolo felt Vegeta bite his trap where it joined his neck and after a brief sharp pain, shocking, ab-cramping ecstasy ripped through him yet again and he wailed as his _theadur_ virtually sucked Vegeta’s cock it pulled at him so hard and demanded more of his seed. Vegeta’s teeth stayed deep in his flesh as he hissed and whimpered through his own orgasm.

Piccolo’s hunger made him nudge Vegeta’s neck open to access the same spot on his little mate and he licked it tenderly before he rasped, “You’re _mine_ , Vegeta. Say it!”

“I’m yours, Piccolo. My heart, I’m yours!” Vegeta almost whimpered as his hips continued to thrust into Piccolo.

“Mine forever, my prince, mine!” Piccolo said, sounding so feral he hardly recognized his own voice and he sank his teeth deep in Vegeta’s flesh while Vegeta sucked and licked Piccolo’s wound.

Piccolo was sure they would die if they came again, but their bodies defied exhaustion and crashed together for one final clenching spurt of euphoria and bliss. Piccolo’s _theadur_ even went off again, though it trembled with exhaustion after all Vegeta had done to him. Vegeta’s tail held Piccolo’s thigh tight and high up, it’s tip still practically penetrating him it was so far between his cheeks, and Piccolo loved every velvety inch of that steely grip.

Piccolo felt perfect. Whole. At peace. Vegeta moved so as not to crush Piccolo, but curled tightly against his side, tilting Piccolo’s hips a little to stay inside him as Piccolo adjusted his legs to remain joined to his mate. Only the most slippery shadows of doubt remained in his mind. Piccolo felt almost certain that no one could fake such a thing, no matter how strong their wish for vengeance, no matter how bitter their grievance. Piccolo chose to believe that Vegeta loved him. That Vegeta had never stopped loving him. They were together again, mated by both Namek and Saiyan tradition, and Piccolo would protect that bond and his mate with his life. Nothing short of death would take Vegeta away from him ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't update for the next week or two (possibly more, but hopefully only two) as I'm having pretty major surgery next week and I don't know how long my recovery will prevent me from writing/editing competently. But I didn't want my faithful readers to think the fic was dead! Unfinished fics break my soul, so unless I have some really crappy luck, I'll be back to finish this up! But hopefully this chapter at least helped unbreak everyone's hearts after what I did in the previous two :P. Thanks for sticking with me!


	14. New Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back(ish). Still in recovery from surgery, but hopefully will be updating pretty regularly...though we're almost to the end of this one. *quietly cries about leaving this duo behind* Thanks for sticking with me. Comments and kudos are always delightful!

“What will we name it?” Piccolo mused, letting his hand run over the slight rounding of his belly he was sure he saw. They were going to see Dende at the Lookout shortly, but Piccolo didn’t really need the young Namek healer to tell him that he was pregnant. He could feel it. He felt life stirring in him and it almost brought him to happy tears every time he focused his mind on the feeling.

Vegeta brought him a mushroom omelet. Since they had never stopped fucking the day before, the entire breakfast he’d made for Piccolo had gone to waste. But neither of them minded. It had been magical. Every time was amazing and Piccolo felt so connected to Vegeta again and it was such a relief after their horrible rift. Vegeta had hardly stopped purring since the previous morning—only when he was in the throes of his orgasms did he cease.

Vegeta insisted Piccolo stay in bed while he cooked and Piccolo’s mouth watered watching Vegeta’s tail lash behind his perfect, taut ass as he sauntered into the kitchen, still purring. He returned with a tray of breakfast for each of them and flopped down next to Piccolo, watching him eat a few bites before demolishing his own food in a way that still defied comprehension.

Piccolo chuckled as he continued to eat while Vegeta ate him up with his eyes. “I’ll have to eat a lot to keep a Saiyan baby healthy and growing, don’t you think?”

“Indeed. And you have to rest. You’ll be exhausted if it’s anything like bearers. I’ll take care of you, dove,” Vegeta said and nuzzled against Piccolo, dragging his jaw over the fresh mating mark and Piccolo’s bare shoulders. Once Piccolo had finished and laid back, Vegeta rubbed his jaw delicately over Piccolo’s belly. “You’re right, dove, I can feel it too…” Vegeta held very still for a long moment and then said, “Oh!”

“What?”

“I think…I think it’s twins!”

“What? No, that’s impossible. Nameks don’t have twins. It would be incredibly difficult to bear two eggs. I’m just getting fat already.”

Vegeta furrowed his brow. He pressed his forehead to Piccolo’s belly. “No. I’m sure of it. There are two tiny, but distinct, chi inside you. It must be the Saiyan genes. The Vegetas often begat twins.”

Piccolo felt the color drain out of his face as fear slithered up his spine, cold and clammy.

“Dove? What’s wrong, dove?”

“I…I don’t think it’s safe. I don’t think they’ll survive,” Piccolo’s eyes filled with bitter tears. He didn’t want to lose this. And what if it happened every time they mated? What if the twin genes of the Vegetas meant Piccolo was as good as barren for his mate? Piccolo sobbed into his hands.

“Sh…sh…Just because Nameks don’t normally have twins doesn’t mean it won’t be okay. It will, you’ll see. You’re so powerful that I know your body can handle it. You’ll bear my young. I can feel it, Piccolo. Don’t be sad.”

“I’m scared, too, Vegeta. Labor is…hard…for Nameks anyway. The combination of being bipedal and bearing large eggs is not ideal. Evolution sometimes ends up with just good enough, not the best. It’s…it’s…it’s…” Piccolo tried to take a deep breath.

Vegeta pulled their foreheads together and soothed Piccolo, but it also allowed Piccolo to share what little he knew of Namek gestation and birth, which he had done before, but now that he had Kami inside him too, his knowledge was much more complete and terrifying. Namek gestation was purgatory before one got to the hell of Namek labor. Vegeta murmured, “I know, dove, I'm not saying it won't be terrible for you. Saiyans were more like the marsupials of Earth so pregnancy was short, labor relatively easy, but the young were vulnerable longer. I know it will go hard for you, but I’ll be by your side, I’ll do everything I can to ease your suffering.”

Piccolo closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of his mate and gradually he calmed. He grinned broadly and said, “Holy shit, twins, Vegeta. We’re going to have two babies!”

Vegeta snorted and smirked as he whispered, “We’re going to have more than that, aren’t we, dove?”

Piccolo chuckled and rolled his head to look at Vegeta where he settled with his head in Piccolo’s lap. “Can I see if I survive one labor before I agree to more?”

“You’ll be great. I know you will. I’m so glad you took me back,” Vegeta said, purring and marking more.

“Me too, my prince. We better bathe and get to Dende’s though. I don’t want to be late meeting a god.”

“Does that mean you’re a demi-god?” Vegeta said with another little smirk as he scooped Piccolo up and carried him into the bathroom.

“I guess it does,” Piccolo said, wrapping his arms around Vegeta’s neck, kissing the turn of his jaw before sucking down his neck to his mating mark which sent a shiver through his little mate’s body.

“Mmm…then perhaps you’re the one who should be giving me commands. I’m just a prince after all,” Vegeta said, opening his neck for Piccolo.

“True, but I rather liked you bossing me around.”

“Good, because I liked doing it. Gods, I’ve missed you.” Vegeta said, nipping along Piccolo’s jaw until his mouth found its way onto Piccolo’s mark as they sat washing themselves to get in the bath.

Piccolo started to clean himself, but Vegeta snatched the sponge away and began scrubbing Piccolo. Piccolo grumped, “I’m not a child, you’ll get plenty of practice bathing someone soon enough.”

“I know you’re not a child, and I won’t be doing this,” Vegeta knelt behind Piccolo and started stroking Piccolo with a soap-slippery hand, “with our child. I want to take care of you, dove. Don’t fight me or I’ll have to start making decrees. I love caring for you, but especially while you’re with child. Can’t you let me dote on you just a bit? You don’t need to gush about it to anyone if it bothers you,” Vegeta said the last part with such glee that Piccolo could feel him smirking.

Piccolo chuckled and said, “It seems awkward to gush to the woman you knocked up. And Krillin’s too busy knocking 18 up to let me gush. I suppose Gohan’s almost old enough I could gush to him. Or perhaps Mirai Trunks would enjoy hearing about how good his father is in bed?”

Vegeta gave him a brisk spanking and Piccolo laughed more before he said, "You can’t hit me anymore, I'm pregnant!”

Vegeta brain smacked him with affectionate irritation as he bit Piccolo’s shoulders hard, though not hard enough to break skin. “You’re trying to goad me, aren’t you? Never wise to goad a Saiyan, my Namek demi-god.”

“Oh? What would happen if I kept goading you, my angry little mate?”

“Mmm…do you like surprises, dove?”

“No, you’ve cured me of that,” Piccolo said and leaned back into Vegeta who still lazily stroked him, but Piccolo could feel that he was getting harder and harder.

“Then don’t goad me. I have a better idea for what you can do…”

“What’s that? Take a bath?” Piccolo said, grinning over his shoulder.

“Piccolo…” Vegeta growled and sucked on his mating mark as he put Piccolo’s hand on his ass, pushed his fingers into the cleft, “Please…” he groaned against the mark.

Piccolo turned around so Vegeta was between his legs and he cupped Vegeta’s perfect ass cheek in his hand while he kissed Vegeta roughly. Piccolo nipped along Vegeta’s jaw and slid his hand into the cleft of Vegeta’s ass, brushing his fingertips over Vegeta’s pucker. His little mate moaned in his ear, “Please, dove…”

“What, my prince?” Piccolo purred back, both hands on Vegeta’s ass now, one soapy finger dipping inside his mate’s eager opening.

“Fuck me, dove, I need your glorious cock inside me. Now.”

Piccolo cupped his hand around Vegeta’s head and started fingering his ass aggressively. He sucked Vegeta’s mating mark and Vegeta’s pre-cum poured into his hand. Piccolo shivered; he loved turning Vegeta on like a faucet. He slicked his mate’s pre-cum over his own prick and whispered, “Do you want me to warm you up more, my prince?”

“I need it now, rough. Hard. Fuck me hard, Piccolo. So fucking hard.” Vegeta spun around and got on all fours, pushing his ass up toward Piccolo, gaping for Piccolo.

Piccolo bent and bit each of Vegeta’s divine cheeks. Heteased Vegeta with his tip, reaching around and gripping Vegeta’s cock. “Is that a command, my prince? Do you command me to fuck you rough until you come all over our bathroom floor?”

“Fuck your prince, dove, fuck him hard.”

Piccolo happily obliged, plunging deep inside his mate, gasping at having this again after so long. He held Vegeta’s sweet little ass in his hands and spread him wide as he gave him a couple hard, deep thrusts before speeding up so much their flesh slapped together in a blur. They scooted across the floor until Vegeta had to brace them against the wall. Vegeta whimpered for his release. Piccolo stroked Vegeta’s cock roughly, bucking into his mate, Vegeta's balls tightening as his climax approached. “Are you ready, my prince? Are you going to come for me? For your demi-god? Give me your seed as an offering?”

Vegeta cried out and his cum spilled over Piccolo’s knuckles. Piccolo pulled him upright to fuck up into him harder, using their height disparity to put even more pressure on Vegeta’s p-spot as Piccolo let himself go inside his mate. He groaned and clamped his mouth over the mating mark, grateful that it was in a place he could reach from the front or the back.

Vegeta collapsed against him, panting, as his ass continued to tremble and grip Piccolo’s cock. Piccolo gave him a final punishing thrust, making Vegeta wail as another gout of semen shot out of him. “Now it’s an acceptable offering, my prince.”

Vegeta reached over his head and stroked Piccolo’s antennae and his head lolled back against Piccolo’s chest. Piccolo could feel how happily sated he was, how gruntled. Vegeta sighed and said, “Gods, dove, I’ve missed you fucking me. That was incredible.”

Piccolo kissed all over Vegeta as they cleaned up, out of time for soaking. They dressed in a hurry and as they stepped outside, Vegeta swung Piccolo up into his arms, bridal style and launched toward the Lookout. “Vegeta!”

“Let me care for you!”

“But—“

“But nothing. Just let me. I won’t be allowed many days of being completely and shamelessly solicitous. I intend to enjoy every one of them, dove.”

Piccolo relented and relaxed into Vegeta’s arms for the few moments it took them to reach the high palace of the Guardian of Earth. Vegeta set Piccolo gently on his feet and before he could rise up on his toes, Piccolo bent to kiss him. At that moment, Piccolo realized that the day before had been the first time ever that Piccolo had made love to Vegeta without Raditz’s presence like a shadow in Vegeta’s mind. Raditz had been entirely absent. The grief too. Piccolo wondered if Vegeta’s tail had helped him find peace.

“You helped me, my ridiculous mate, how can you not know that?” Vegeta said with a smirk and a swat to Piccolo’s ass, making Dende flush as he came to greet them.

Dende confirmed Vegeta’s assessment of Piccolo’s condition. “I have no experience with hybrids, you two, so we will have to watch and be wary. I’ll keep a close eye on you, Piccolo, but you need to rest and eat plenty, no strenuous activity, certainly no sparring. And…well, you know how Namek mating goes? Yes?”

Piccolo grinned at Vegeta, who looked back and forth between Piccolo and Dende, bewildered. Piccolo brain-smacked him with the image of them coupling nonstop right on into labor. Vegeta yelped before he smirked and said, “Oh! I _like_ Namek mating!”

Dende chuckled and flushed, gave them a few more tips, and bid them farewell. Vegeta scooped Piccolo up again and let them free-fall toward the ground for a long time before pulling up and flying to their house. He put Piccolo in bed and purred loudly as he marked Piccolo’s belly more. He kissed Piccolo and went into the kitchen. Piccolo heard him growling and purring as he bustled around before he reappeared with a tray laden with all manner of food for Piccolo to choose from. He said, “Dove, can you make one of those things, like in _Downton Abbey_ , you know, for eating in bed?”

Piccolo closed his eyes and a little table that fit over his legs in bed appeared and Vegeta grunted with pleasure. He set the tray there and bent to kiss Piccolo’s mouth, growling against his lips. “Mmm…you eat, dove, and I’m going to my workshop to start making the babies’ furniture. Hmm…what else will they need? Eggs must need to be incubated? Perhaps Bulma can create something?”

“I think I’ve got enough information from Nail to make one, Vegeta. I can make furniture too. And a nursery.”

“No! I want to make the furniture. The nursery I’m afraid I will have to leave to you, as I haven’t done nearly enough actual construction to do a good job before they hatch. But there’s so much to do! I’m so happy!” Vegeta’s tail swung back and forth in lazy arcs before it snaked over Piccolo’s arm and up to his jaw, rubbing along it as though he were the one with marking glands.

Piccolo still felt a timid, trembling fear in the bottom of his heart that this was all part of Vegeta’s next plot for vengeance, so once Vegeta was in his workshop, Piccolo let himself go and sobbed, shielding his thoughts and feelings aggressively so Vegeta wouldn’t come back and see. This fear had the flip side that if Vegeta really did just love him and had made a mistake, Piccolo’s continued reticence would hurt his feelings, and even if this was revenge, Piccolo hated upsetting his little mate.

Piccolo’s calm returned after venting the intensity of his feelings. He picked his way through the food, already feeling queasy and overfull after a small amount. He was unused to so much idle time and it felt bizarre to be such a lump when he wasn't actively trying to kill himself. He read his book, tried to meditate, spiraled into fear again, and got up to go see what Vegeta was up to in his shop. Piccolo needed the distraction so his mind didn’t keep circling every single thing Vegeta did like a hawk, tearing each apart with its talons to try to show Piccolo the false interior.

Vegeta was busy on his computer, designing the furniture first, muttering to himself, then popping over to Ravelry where he perused baby sweaters and hats and booties and amurigami. Piccolo enjoyed watching Vegeta at his machines most, but he also loved when he got to skulk like this and go unseen no matter what Vegeta was doing. Vegeta did look truly happy. His face was glowing and he flitted all over the internet from websites about breastfeeding to information about swaddling, the pros and cons of different types of diapers, how to deal with colic, Lamaze techniques, and, of course, Pinterest, to look at nursery layouts and the best way to set up for twins. He had a notebook beside him and he scribbled in it constantly, sketching some things, writing others down.

He looked up after Piccolo had been watching him for a long time, leaning in the doorway to the house. He hopped to his feet and worry flashed on his face as he hurried over, “Dove? Why aren’t you resting?”

“I am, Vegeta, I’m just standing here, it’s not like standing is exerting myself.”

“Is everything okay? Are you hungry? Do you have a craving? I can make you anything you like, or go out for takeout?”

“Vegeta,” Piccolo murmured and curled down to kiss his fretting mate, “I’m fine. I just came out to see what you were up to and then I got caught up in watching you. In how much I’ve missed you. How wonderful you are.”

Vegeta ran his hands over Piccolo’s belly and pressed his face into Piccolo’s chest. “Gods, Piccolo, thank you for taking me back. For forgiving me. I’ve missed you so much. I’m so excited for our little family. There’s so much to do and now all my silly crafting has a purpose! I haven’t posted anything on my blog since that day and people thought I died, which is sort of true, because I would have, without you. But now I can do a whole series of posts on the nursery.”

Something itched in Piccolo’s mind about making their pregnancy public like that and the color drained from Piccolo’s face. “Dove? Hey, Piccolo, what’s wrong? Here, here, sit.” Vegeta lifted him up and put him gently in Vegeta’s desk chair.

“Fuck, Vegeta, what if…what if Goku finds out and comes after us? Comes after me or the babies?”

Vegeta erupted into super-Saiyan two in a flash of angry chi and he hissed, “Let him fucking try!” Vegeta’s hair flickered almost red and his eyes darkened and the iris spread out, also flashing red before his coloring returned to the normal gold and turquoise as Vegeta willed his power down. He was jet black hair and onyx eyes again, staring at Piccolo with such fiery, fierce protectiveness, that it put him at ease not only about Goku, but about Vegeta’s intentions. Vegeta continued, “And no one online knows who I am. And that fucking idiot is probably illiterate anyway. If he even knows what the internet is. But he would never best me now if he dares to come back from King Kai’s to try to do us harm.”

Piccolo had forgotten that Goku declined to come back after Cell. “Oh…that’s right, I forgot he was dead.”

“If he wasn’t, I’d kill him,” Vegeta growled, then softened and caressed Piccolo’s cheek, straddled him in the chair and murmured, “Let’s go put your feet up. I’ve got to finish the furniture plans before I go find appropriate wood and stain.” Vegeta’s whole body thrummed with excitement. 

Piccolo liked seeing him so enthusiastic. It was like when he first came home after asking to use “currency" once he’d discovered creating for pleasure. Now it was a career for Vegeta, though he never thought of it that way and still considered himself nothing more than a warrior. And he was. Vegeta just had so much energy that he could be many things, all of them wonderful. Piccolo’s fear receded and he told it to stay back, to let him enjoy Vegeta, whether it was true or not.

“The only thing I know is true, Piccolo, is how much I love you,” Vegeta whispered against Piccolo’s lips, holding his face.

“Can I stay out here? Keep you company?”

“Of course, but you can’t stand, you should lie down, can you make yourself a couch? Or should I carry the couch out here?”

Piccolo’s eyes slid closed and he focused his mind on a long, deep, comfortable sofa, imagining the deep, royal blue Vegeta favored and nice suede texture and it began to coalesce out of the air. Piccolo heard Vegeta’s sharp intake of breath: no matter how many times he’d used his magic, it still awed Vegeta. After a few minutes it settled down and the atoms all settled into their respective molecules and finished bonding until it was as real as anything else in the world, air and dust morphed into something useful and tangible.

Vegeta kissed him deeply and hooked his hands behind Piccolo’s knees as he stood up. He carried him over to the couch and settled Piccolo as though Piccolo were unconscious rather than fully awake and capable of moving into a comfortable position on his own. He touched Vegeta’s face and kissed his nose as he whispered, “You’re a ridiculous creature.”

“Only for you, dove. I’ll go get you some water and snacks.”

“I don’t want to eat any more,” Piccolo said, his nose wrinkling up in disgust at the thought.

“Dende said you must eat or it will take longer. What sounds tolerable?”

“More fruit, I guess. There’s still some in the bedroom. You can just bring out the tray.”

Vegeta disappeared and reappeared in a blink with a blanket and food and water and kisses. Piccolo wasn’t sure he’d survive Vegeta’s doting, it kept turning his insides to mush and making him wish for someone to gush to again, even if there was the lurking, dark danger of abandonment. 

* * *

Piccolo found that he could only actually relax and rest in Vegeta’s presence, perhaps because of the lingering uncertainty in his heart. Vegeta didn’t mind, he seemed to enjoy being able to pop over and cover Piccolo in kisses until they inevitably wound up panting and tearing at each other’s clothes. Vegeta had four solid days of working on his baby projects before the call of Piccolo’s _theadur_ became too strong to resist for more than the minutes it took him to eat and go to the bathroom. Piccolo did most of his eating with Vegeta inside him.

By the fifth day, Vegeta could only fuck him from behind or while standing when Piccolo was prone. His stomach was enormous with two distinct mounds, side by side, growing seemingly by the minute. His misery increased with his size, and by the ninth day, he hated every minute of wakefulness that he wasn’t coming (and to Vegeta’s credit, he tried to maximize Piccolo’s amount of time spent in the throes of orgasm).

Dende began stopping by every day after the seventh, and warned Piccolo that there was no telling when he would go into labor. By the eleventh day, Piccolo barely maintained civility he was in so much pain and the constant nausea made it insufferable to eat, but Vegeta wouldn’t let him fast. Piccolo felt certain that he would die before he would go into labor.

The twelfth day, Vegeta had him sprawled on his back on the island in the kitchen, the cool of the quartz underneath him felt magnificent on his aching back, and Vegeta’s cock still played Piccolo like a fiddle. He gasped and arched toward Vegeta, who kept his hand tight on Piccolo’s dick, moving it up and down with delicious, teasing slowness. 

Vegeta trailed his tongue up over each egg’s hump and murmured, “You are so beautiful like this, dove. I want to fuck you forever holding your ripe belly in my hands. My only regret is that I can’t kiss you, can't suck your perky little nipples.”

Piccolo was on the verge of climax when a thousand razorblades ripped into his spine and belly, turning his scream from pleasure into agony. Vegeta’s release was unimpeded by whatever hell had erupted in Piccolo’s insides, but his eyes snapped out of their ecstatic haze into bright terror. He placed his hands firmly on Piccolo’s belly and gasped, “It’s starting, dove,” as he thrust helplessly a few more times, which was surprisingly hot, and before Piccolo had time to think about it, he cascaded into a powerful orgasm, which alleviated some of his suffering.

Vegeta moved them to the bed where it would be softer and he fucked Piccolo right through the early phases of labor, coaching him through his contractions like he was a doula, not a murderous Saiyan warrior, and Piccolo was surprised at how helpful Vegeta was. He knew when he got pregnant that Vegeta meant well, but he hadn’t actually anticipated Vegeta being able to do anything to physically help, but he did. Piccolo was miserable, certainly, but it was like an excruciating workout, not a losing, devastating battle.

But that was before it was time to push.


	15. True Colors

“This is your fucking fault! You and your godsdamned Vegeta twins! Motherfucker! I’m never having another baby ever again! How are they ever going to come out of me!?” Piccolo bit out between his groans of misery. 

Piccolo raged more as Vegeta and Dende helped him change positions. Dende took a step away, out of Piccolo’s range, and said, “You’re going to keep suffering and feeling the urge to push until you push them _out_ , Piccolo. I understand you’re in pain, but it will never end if you don’t _make_ it end.”

Vegeta had given up speaking as Piccolo couldn’t seem to be civil to his mate at the moment. Piccolo had been (sort of) pushing for the last several hours, in agony, but he knew Dende was right. It hurt so badly when Piccolo pushed that it was hard to make himself do it. Piccolo felt the awful surge of all his body’s muscles trying to expel the horrible, gigantic egg through the narrow passage at the top of _theadur._ So many nerves that once brought him pleasure now made him wish for death. But he gave in to instinct and really pushed. Pushed like a Namek warrior.

Vegeta cried, “Yes! Dove, that’s it! Oh, wait, whoa! Okay, slow down or you’ll tear, easy, easy, yes, you’re doing great. But…careful. It’s an egg, not a projectile—“

“Shut the fuck up, Vegeta!” Piccolo roared and his body betrayed him again. Piccolo panted between contractions, trying to catch his breath. He focused his mind: it was like a battle, and like most battles, he maybe couldn’t be the strongest, but perhaps he could survive. He heaved and Dende and Vegeta cheered him on. More and more. Until his whole being waited like a trip-wire for that undeniable urge.

He gave in to the torture of his body, leaned into it relentlessly, until Vegeta shouted happily, kissed Piccolo hard, and handed him a perfectly formed, gorgeous, glowing egg. It had a pale pink shell covered in a smattering of almost iridescent green freckles, raised just enough that Piccolo could feel them in the moments before his body insisted on attacking him again. Vegeta took the egg from Piccolo and placed it in the incubator Piccolo had made several days ago. Piccolo’s hands bit into the mattress, as the next contraction hit him. He pushed, feeling the second egg shift inside him painfully. He groaned, “Fucking twins…”

By the time Piccolo evicted his second tenant, he wanted to murder Vegeta. He’d never been in so much pain in his life, even having limbs _ripped off_ hadn’t been this bad. There wasn’t even a moment of relief after the second egg was out because his stomach decided to just keep the agony going. It began to yank and pull every stretched and strained part of his anatomy and shove it gracelessly back where it had been before growing two large eggs. The lines of his eight-pack reappeared before his own bleary, tear-filled eyes and Vegeta’s wide, joy-filled eyes. Vegeta’s hand ran delicately over the shifting landscape of Piccolo’s abdomen. Piccolo meant to swat Vegeta’s hand away, but instead found himself clutching at his mate, holding his hand tight against his body.

Piccolo stopped berating Vegeta once his stomach stopped violently contracting. Vegeta marked him gently, his jaw running up the length of Piccolo’s torso, first one side then the other. He tentatively kissed Piccolo. Piccolo allowed it. Vegeta kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and Piccolo decided maybe he didn’t _hate_ Vegeta. But he was never having sex with him again. Vegeta’s hand slid up his neck, cradled his jaw and began brushing his forehead oh-so-lightly on Piccolo’s antennae until Piccolo decided Vegeta didn’t play fair. Two minutes of foreplay and Piccolo wished he could have sex with Vegeta right that minute.

A soft throat-clearing brought Piccolo back out of the haze Vegeta cast whenever he kissed Piccolo. Dende said, “Vegeta, I’d like to examine Piccolo. You can’t…express too much affection…for about two weeks. I’ll be able to tell you when it’s safe again.”

“Express too much affection?” Vegeta bit out, horrified, “Why the hell not? He’s my mate, my love, my only, I should be able to tell him I love him as much as I wish! What p—“

Dende cut him off, flushing, “I meant sex, Vegeta. You may not have sex with Piccolo until I’ve cleared him. You could damage his _theadur._ It’s important—the short period of abstinence after birthing an egg triggers infertility for a good while so you can enjoy yourselves without risking more eggs.”

Vegeta harrumphed. “But I want more eggs.”

Dende said, “In due time, Vegeta. Surely you don’t want to wear your mate’s body down?”

Vegeta said, “No! That isn’t what I meant, I don’t mean now!”

Piccolo brain-smacked Vegeta with his wish to be alone and cuddle their eggs and rest. Vegeta yelped, but stopped pointlessly arguing with Dende, allowed the examination to proceed, and thanked the Guardian politely when he left.

Vegeta brought Piccolo a tray of food, but Piccolo’s gorge rose at the thought. “No, Vegeta! Oh, gods, you’re gonna make me throw up. Please put it back in the kitchen.”

Vegeta did, without question, and hurried back. He moved the eggs carefully into the bed and gently pushed them into a special sort of egg “blanket” he knit. It was like a giant sock with two bulges that the eggs fit snugly inside, a plush donut-shaped bolster to keep them from hitting each other. It was made of the softest, squishiest yarn Piccolo had ever felt in a beautiful variegation of bright, saturated colors. Once they were tucked in, Vegeta covered Piccolo and snuggled on the other side of the eggs, his hand on Piccolo’s hip, their foreheads pressed together, sharing _peluwsa._

“You forgive me, dove? Now that you have these two beautiful eggs that will hatch into our two beautiful babies?”

“Promise me you won’t put twins in me again?” Piccolo said.

Vegeta’s face twisted up and he said, “I can’t possibly control that!”

Piccolo smiled, kissed Vegeta, and said, “I know, I'm teasing you, my prince. Of course I forgive you, I was never _really_ mad.”

Vegeta raised an eyebrow and smirked. He said, “You said you hated me quite emphatically every single time you pushed.”

“Well…it really hurts to push eggs out.”

“I know, dove. I’m so proud of you,” Vegeta said, purring softly and he marked Piccolo a little on his head.

Piccolo laughed and kissed Vegeta more. Vegeta purred louder and his tail lazily ran up and down Piccolo’s body. Piccolo murmured, “Did you mark the eggs?”

“Smell them, they already smell like me.”

Piccolo shoved his nose into the soft, knit fabric and breathed deeply. They did smell like Vegeta, but also not. They had their own perfect scent, the perfect chimera of Piccolo and Vegeta’s scents. He kissed each and rested his forehead on one to see if he could already share a tiny little _peluwsa_ with his young. It was faint and formless, but Piccolo gasped. Vegeta must have realized what he was doing, because he rested is forehead on the other and after a moment, Piccolo heard him breathe, “Holy shit…”

They switched wordlessly and after a moment sat up and looked at each other grinning. Piccolo whispered, “They’re such real little creatures, they know us now! You can tell they’re Saiyan, it’s like a big nebulous craving for food and violence.”

Vegeta had never looked more pleased with anything in his life. His purring was loud and he leaned to rub his jaw on Piccolo, eventually crawling over the eggs to he could mark every inch of Piccolo’s skin. Piccolo felt so loved, but also like two weeks was a very long time. He finally pulled Vegeta up to his mouth and they kissed until Piccolo was so tired he had to sleep.

* * *

Laziness seemed more permissible when one was incubating eggs. Piccolo hated his immobility and lethargy during pregnancy, it had been awful and boring, but now he never wanted to get out of bed. He did, of course, but only the bare minimum. 

Vegeta spent a couple hours every weekday afternoon with Trunks. Bulma and Vegeta had also decided that Trunks would stay with Piccolo and Vegeta every other weekend. Even though he was so young, he seemed to sense that the eggs were his siblings. He would snuffle around on them, just like Vegeta, and he growled when they tried to move the eggs while he was cuddled up with them.

Vegeta joined Piccolo for incubating some, but his drive to train and to make their little nursery perfect was powerful now that Piccolo didn’t need him for constant fucking. Given that they couldn’t fuck at all, Piccolo thought maybe it was better that Vegeta was frantically working on his nursery projects. Piccolo didn’t mind, it felt perfect to curl around his perfect eggs while his perfect (or _almost_ perfect) mate worked on making sure the babies had the best life possible. 

Two weeks flew by as Piccolo dozed with his eggs, only using the incubator when he trained a couple hours every day, always with them in sight. On the last day, he snuck up to the Lookout, hoping to return home and surprise Vegeta with being cleared to make love again. They didn’t have Trunks that weekend, so they would be able to celebrate the birth of their eggs in the way they preferred to celebrate almost everything: with lots of exuberant sex.

Piccolo tried to ignore what Dende was doing, to not feel the horrible touch of another against his _theadur_ until he heard a little worried, “Huh,” from between his legs.

“What’s that mean? Why are you ‘huh’-ing? What’s wrong?” Piccolo asked, panic rising in his chest.

“Well, you’re okay to have sex, but there is a change that bodes ill for your future fertility. It looks like your pain and reluctance to push may have been justified.”

Piccolo tried to imagine telling Vegeta that he was barren now. That their own eggs had possibly made him unable to bear any more of Vegeta’s children. Two weeks earlier, Piccolo might have celebrated this development, but now that his hormones had fogged the horror of birth, the first prickles of fear, of vengeance, crept back up his spine. What if Vegeta left him? Went back to Bulma for more offspring?

Dende said, “Please don’t despair, Piccolo. At the very least, it will be harder to conceive the next time. But I can’t say anything more than that at this point.”

Piccolo sat up and suddenly regretted doing this alone. He wished Vegeta was with him because he felt…existentially alone. Lonely. Hollow. But their eggs needed someone to care for them anyway, although Gohan always offered to watch them if Vegeta and Piccolo wanted to do things together.

“Dende! What have you done to my mate!? Piccolo, are you alright? Piccolo!” Vegeta roared from outside.

Piccolo looked up from his lap in shock. He hurriedly pulled on his pants as Vegeta powered up. His chi was spiking to a level that Piccolo had never felt before and he feared for Dende’s safety. 

Piccolo sprinted to Vegeta. Piccolo kissed his overprotective little mate and said, “Hey, hey, Vegeta, I’m here. I’m fine. I was just trying to surprise you by getting the all clear—“

Something slammed into Vegeta in a blur, and the floor of the Lookout crumbled away beneath Piccolo’s feet, he fell for a long moment before he recognized the chi, and what was happening, though he had no idea why. Why now?

The eggs. Piccolo blazed through the air, knowing it wouldn’t matter because of instant-transmission, but he had to try. Within seconds he was with them and they were safe in their incubator, but Vegeta maybe wasn’t, but who would stay with the eggs if Piccolo went to help Vegeta?

_Stay with the eggs! Take them, suppress your chi, and hide! Hide, dove, the fool thinks they’re a threat to himself, to Gohan,_ Vegeta shouted in his mind.

Piccolo didn’t second guess his mate, there was no time for that, but he had to help Vegeta too, so he buried his chi and ran on foot with one egg under each arm. He found Bulma and gasped, “Goku’s attacking Vegeta, and I don’t know why, but I have to help him, please, Bulma, please, can you hide the eggs? Keep them warm? Please? You’ll take care of them? If something happens to us?”

“Piccolo?! Why would Goku do that?” Bulma said, Trunks in her arms.

“Fuck, I don’t know, Bulma! Please?” Piccolo concentrated hard and an incubator formed in the room behind her. “Please? They’re Trunks’s siblings. He loves them already. Please? I can’t leave them unless I know you’ll take care of them, but what if he kills Vegeta? I can’t live without him, Bulma, I can’t, please, I know he—“

“Go, Piccolo! I’ll take care of them. He gave me Trunks, even if he is like a grouchy house cat. Go, hurry.”

Piccolo found them farther away than he’d anticipated, over the ocean. Gohan was there too, trying to talk to his father, but Vegeta and Goku were locked in a life or death battle. Piccolo couldn’t see any way to help without getting in the way. Piccolo hadn’t realized how far beyond him Vegeta had moved. After he merged with Kami they had a period of being roughly on par with each other, so the leap Vegeta had made in the past year was startling. Vegeta’s chi was also rapidly changing, it felt strange…unstable…transparent.

Gohan gave up on Goku and came to Piccolo. Vegeta threw a vicious hit that sent Goku spiraling into the water. He bellowed, “Gohan! I’ll end you if you touch my mate!”

Gohan held up his hands in surrender and shouted, “I’m just talking, Vegeta! I’m trying to get my dad to stop!”

Goku slammed into Vegeta again, but Vegeta was ready and they grappled in the air, Vegeta taking Goku by surprise with a sort of twisting hold like nothing Piccolo had ever seen and a loud pop rang through the lightning-filled air. Vegeta had levered Goku’s right shoulder free of the joint. Vegeta’s triumphant smirk told Piccolo he had been working on this move. Goku gripped his shoulder and yanked it back in to the socket with another sickening sucking noise. The blur of energy resumed.

Piccolo said to Gohan, but kept his eyes on his love, “What is going on? How is Goku even here? I thought he was dead!”

“I’m sorry, Piccolo! I resurrected him and he started talking about how you and Vegeta must be training because your chi were always together. I said that you two had reconciled, that you were mated again, and his face got…crazy. He knocked me out! He hit _me,_ Piccolo! I didn’t even block because such a thing had never even occurred to me to worry about. What’s happening?”

Piccolo watched the fight carefully now, and saw what he expected, Goku’s hands were trying to find a path to Vegeta’s tail. Vegeta saw too and Piccolo heard a dark screed of Saiyan directed at Goku. Goku’s hand came within a millimeter of Vegeta’s tail, but his distraction allowed Vegeta to try another new move and he sent Goku deep into the ocean again. Vegeta followed this time. Piccolo could feel them wrestling under the water and Piccolo realized that Vegeta intended to drown Goku. An all out battle to the death via bludgeoning could take days for two powerful Saiyans, and Vegeta wouldn’t want to risk that. This battle wasn’t about pride or status, it was about saving his family. Vegeta would be ruthless. Piccolo hated not being able to see what was happening deep under the choppy water.

After a several minutes, Piccolo noticed that miles away to the south, an enormous school of tuna tore through the water, splashing out in hungry throngs, hunting down a giant shoal of some other, smaller fish. But that wasn’t what drew Piccolo’s attention. Close on the tails of the tuna were dolphins. Hundreds of dolphins. So many that even so far above the water, Piccolo could hear them clicking and squeaking. They herded the tuna toward where Goku had just popped up for air near Vegeta, who was gasping for breath already. Vegeta dodged the bigger Saiyan’s attempts to fill his lungs with water using chi to push it into his face.

The first dolphin took Goku by surprise and he wailed as it nailed him right in the kidney with its hard snout. The next didn’t get the drop on Goku, but before long so many dolphins were working in a coordinated fashion to keep Goku spinning and crazy that he couldn’t keep a bead on Vegeta. They probably weren’t strong enough to really hurt Goku, but the constant intrusions were distracting him and there were so many he couldn’t seem to keep them at bay.

Goku managed to launch up out of the water and began forming an enormous chi blast, aiming at the pod of dolphins swarming below him. Vegeta clicked and squeaked and squealed and they all disappeared before the blast ever hit the water. Gohan turned to Piccolo and said, “What the heck was _that_?”

“Vegeta’s bad with humans, but otherwise he’s really good at making friends.”

“What?” Gohan said, still bewildered.

From the north Piccolo saw a pod of orcas moving in on the area where Goku and Vegeta continued battling in and out of the water. When the first one breached and bit at Goku, which he narrowly avoided, probably saving his leg, he screeched, “Jeez, Vegeta! You’re cheating! You can’t…I don’t know…use weapons!”

“Not scared of a little teamwork, are you? You certainly favored it when you killed my fucking mate, you soulless pervert!”

Goku still hadn’t noticed Piccolo (he’d suppressed his chi as far as he could while maintaining altitude). Piccolo cringed when he saw Goku’s face, the dark, evil glint was back in his eyes as he chuckled, back to fighting full force again. He said, “You’re lucky Piccolo was there or I would have drawn things out a bit more for your precious oaf of a mate. I could smell he was already pregnant, but I didn’t really care. Smelling a Saiyan for the first time as an adult…a bearer…oh man, Vegeta, I got so hard, just right away. That had never happened to me before.”

Piccolo didn’t know when he’d covered Gohan’s ears, but he had. He didn’t want Gohan to hear what his father was going to say.

Goku continued as Vegeta got more and more flustered and upset. “I probably could have pounded your baby right out of him, put my own in its place. Can you imagine the power of that kid? Too bad you’re not a bearer, Vegeta. But you smell amazing. Having your tail back makes me want it even more. Maybe I should wish mine back, then we could—“

Piccolo also didn’t know when he let Gohan go and decided to deck Goku. But now that he was hitting Goku, he decided it was a superior method of preventing Gohan from hearing vile shit come out of his father’s mouth. Goku was so much stronger than Piccolo that landing hits was entirely a matter of technique. But Piccolo had been training with Vegeta, a sneaky, crafty, ruthless fighter, so Piccolo _did_ land hits, which infuriated Goku.

Goku called to Vegeta, “Maybe I’ll pop a couple eggs in your new mate, since he ruined my chances to do the same to Raditz. I betcha Piccolo doesn’t even know when you put an egg in him. I bet he just lays there, huh, Vegeta? But I bet Raditz was _fun_.”

Vegeta’s roar sent shockwaves that made enormous breakers on the ocean and Piccolo hoped they didn’t build into tsunamis. Piccolo wanted his little mate to calm down, Goku had fought with Vegeta enough to know that he got sloppy whenever he got upset. 

_My prince, he’s using your love against you! Don’t let him turn you into a mess!_

_That is not what he’s turning me into. Get away, dove, I end this today, manage Gohan if you can, but if you can’t, I’ll manage him too._

Vegeta was taking over from Piccolo when Goku cocked his head to the side and grinned and said, “There they are! I didn’t expect two, but I found ‘em. They feel just like the two of you,” and evaporated.

Vegeta’s turquoise eyes grew wide and he screamed and turned back toward Capsule Corps, more deafening waves of power blasting off him. Piccolo soared into Vegeta’s slipstream as they raced to their babies. Piccolo hated himself for being this much of a fool. He completely forgot that the eggs’ chi had grown daily, so that it was powerful and detectable, surpassing Trunks already. Goku was right to fear how powerful Piccolo and Vegeta’s young would be.

Piccolo saw Capsule Corps and saw Goku holding the incubator. But Piccolo’s heart surged with love and forgiveness, because Bulma had her body wrapped around the incubator, her arms locked, screaming profanity at Goku. Trunks bit at him, tiny puffs of chi singing Goku’s gi, but thankfully Goku hadn’t noticed Trunks yet.

Vegeta landed and Piccolo thought for a minute Vegeta’s hair flickered again and Piccolo filled with dread. What if his mate was exhausted and dropped back down to his base level? Vegeta wouldn’t stand a chance against a super-Saiyan-2 Goku if he couldn’t maintain his own transformation. Piccolo was strong, but not strong enough. His whole belly ached seeing his eggs in danger. A tingling like fire spilled through his blood and he felt new strength, maybe not enough, but he would die trying to save them.

“Kakarot, get your filthy fucking hands off my eggs,” Vegeta said, but the trembling emotion from out over the water was gone. His voice sounded commanding. Terrifying.

“I don’t think I will, Vegeta. I think I’ll make an omelet. I’m really hungry, and they’re pretty good sized. How do you put an egg in a Namek, Vegeta? Is it just like how Saiyans work?”

Vegeta didn’t take the bait. A strange calm settled over Vegeta, and the air seemed to freeze, the birds went silent, and even Goku’s new, villainous smile faltered. Bulma stopped shouting at Goku. Piccolo had eyes only for his eggs. Goku held them off the ground, up over his head. The incubator was well padded, but not made for a hard drop, or a throw. They were far too young to hatch so a crack in their egg would be fatal. Piccolo could get to the incubator before it landed if Vegeta could get one good hit in on Goku’s body.

“Dove, look at me,” Vegeta’s eerily calm voice said.

Piccolo turned. Vegeta’s hair was definitely flickering, his eyes too, his _chi_ too, like he was just going to die, because his chi kept _disappearing_. Piccolo went telepathic, _If you can hit him—_

“You don’t need to hide our plan, it won’t matter,” Vegeta said, still so calm. Had he given up? Piccolo had seen Vegeta give up before, though the proud Saiyan would never admit it with words. Vegeta knew when he was beaten and didn’t seem to get a thrill out of it like Goku and the subsequent burst of power that had characterized Goku’s style. But Piccolo also knew Vegeta would _never_ give up when his family was at risk.

“Vegeta, please don’t give up!”

“Oh, no, dove,” Vegeta said, laughing the maniacal way he had when he first came to Earth. Goku’s face was inscrutable as he tried to figure out what Vegeta was doing and why Vegeta felt the way he did, because it didn’t make sense. It felt like…nothing. Like Vegeta ceased to exist. Even a corpse had chi for a bit, so what _was_ this? “Dove, will you please take the eggs and Gohan away from here. The woman and the child, too, Gohan can help you carry, right, Gohan?”

Goku said, “Don’t want the whole family to see you lose _again,_ Vegeta?”

Vegeta turned his eyes from Piccolo and regarded Goku coolly. “You know, it’s taken me years to realize, you _never_ beat me. You and all your little friends and your son beat me, yes. But not you. Never you. And my own fucking pride and hubris, of course. If I’d properly stomped you when I had the chance instead of trying to have vengeance, you would have died. But then we’d have Frieza, and I wouldn’t have my dove, my Piccolo, so I don’t even care.”

Goku said, “Sorry, Bulma.” He yanked her off the incubator, tossed her to the ground, and threw their eggs high in the air. Goku aimed a chi blast and fired all before Piccolo could even move. Piccolo screamed and dropped to his knees in horror, but somehow his eggs were on the ground in front of him. Vegeta’s touch on his shoulder, but Vegeta was gone, so it didn’t make sense.

Vegeta said, “Keep them with you, dove. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll keep them safe.”

Piccolo saw Vegeta’s fingers, so it wasn’t imagined. He looked up Vegeta’s arm, his face, his hair, and Piccolo’s breath caught in his throat. Piccolo covered his mouth and said, “What the hell?”

Gohan said, “He’s…he’s gone. Vegeta’s gone but he’s here. What’s happening, Piccolo?”

Piccolo could still feel Goku and Gohan, so it wasn’t as if they’d all somehow gone to afterlife. Goku was hurt, Piccolo saw him wheezing on the ground, back at his base level. Piccolo didn’t feel Vegeta’s fingers leave his shoulder, but Goku flew through the air, smacked into a tree, broke the tree, and kept going. Then Vegeta was visibly gone, not just his chi. Piccolo couldn't feel a thing except Goku’s declining chi.

It surged back up a moment later and Goku materialized behind Piccolo, his arm wrapping tight around Piccolo’s throat. Vegeta stood in front of Piccolo, his hair a glittering, burning, pinkish red, his pupils blown wide, with a red-pink ring. And they were so calm. So unafraid. So loving as they met Piccolo’s. Piccolo’s fear melted away. Vegeta would never let Goku hurt him. Never let Goku hurt their eggs.

“I _can_ let you live, Kakarot, despite what a disgusting piece of refuse you are. Because you're nothing to me. But not if you don’t _choose_ to let go of my mate. You won’t hurt him, either way. I won’t let you. And I can hear your tiny brain whirring and trying to figure out how to end Piccolo to send me into a spiral of despair, but it won’t work. He may not be as strong as you, but you aren’t protecting your young.”

Piccolo thought about the burning in his veins, the ferocity, pictured Goku touching his eggs, _throwing them_. Goku screamed behind him and leapt away, slapping at his gi and his arms and even his hair. Piccolo didn’t know how, it hadn’t been a choice, but he had set Goku on fire. The air didn't even seem to stir, but Vegeta held Goku aloft, floating about fifteen feet off the ground. Piccolo never saw him or felt him move at all, but they were thirty feet away, Goku still smoking.

“If I ever see you or feel you or hear you or smell you again, I will kill you. You’ve been warned. I won’t hesitate. We won’t have a battle. I will destroy you like you never existed. The words you spoke today showed me what you truly are, if I had any remaining doubt. There was a time I thought I could respect you as a warrior, but you’re filth, you’re evil, you’re _weak_ ,” Vegeta spat and tossed Goku to the ground. Goku caught himself, powered back up, and Vegeta said, “Think hard, Kakarot. Think hard about what you’re about to do. Your boy is right over there. He just brought you back. Do you want to keep on with this nonsense just because my offspring will be more powerful than yours?”

Goku’s hair dimmed to black and he looked at Piccolo. Piccolo met his gaze and stepped forward so he straddled his eggs, formed a wall of fire around them, and stared into that empty gaze. Piccolo turned to Gohan and said, “Anytime you need me, I’m always around, okay?”

Gohan nodded, visibly confused and upset. “Let’s go, Gohan. We should hunt something for dinner,” Goku said. Gohan hesitated but eventually joined his father with a mumbled apology to Piccolo and Vegeta.

Piccolo dropped to the ground and wrapped around their eggs. Vegeta scooped him up and flew them home, his hair still fire, his chi still gone, and his eyes the very definition of love.

* * *

They secured the eggs in their incubator and there was a long, frozen moment where Piccolo just stood, helplessly staring at whatever Vegeta had become. It wasn’t the same as when Piccolo had grown so weak he couldn’t sense chi, it was like…a dog whistle. Piccolo knew that Vegeta’s chi must be there, but he wasn’t attuned to it. He found the thought very upsetting, that he couldn’t feel his own mate’s chi.

Vegeta strutted over to Piccolo, looked up at him, and Piccolo went blind. But it wasn’t really blindness. It was like looking into a light so bright he couldn’t see anything else, like it sent fire along his nerves. And just as suddenly it was gone. Vegeta tilted his head slightly to the side and searched his eyes.

Vegeta’s hand slid up Piccolo’s jaw and tugged him down into a scorching kiss. Vegeta’s lips felt so…authoritative…that Piccolo thought he would do anything to keep kissing Vegeta. Vegeta started to rise up, but Piccolo curled down farther to deepen this kiss, without making his little mate rise up on his toes. Piccolo’s arms snaked behind Vegeta’s strangely present body, like he was divinity, bodily present, but…

Piccolo’s head snapped back from Vegeta’s. “Holy shit…that’s why I can’t feel it. Dende can feel you, I bet, and is probably confused as fuck.”

Vegeta regarded Piccolo another moment, like he wasn’t ready to speak. He closed his eyes slowly and breathed deeply, his hair darkening and dimming back to black and his chi, still enormous, roaring back to life so powerfully that Piccolo felt it like a blow. When he opened his eyes, they were black once more, though no less fiery and fierce. Vegeta said, “Dende knows. I spoke to him when I first felt the flickering of what I might be able to become. I wasn’t sure it was possible. It’s just a myth amongst Saiyans, but so was the supposedly legendary super Saiyan that’s now as common as Saiyans. When…when Kakarot threatened you…said those things about you. You warned me not to get upset. But I wasn’t upset. What I felt was… _wrath_. _Divine_ wrath. Even if it destroyed my body, which was Dende’s concern, I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t lose our eggs.”

Fire filled Piccolo’s veins, cried out for the fuel it craved, and he lunged and pulled Vegeta into his arms, onto his hips, crushing him and kissing him. Vegeta’s arms snaked around Piccolo’s neck and he pushed Piccolo’s head to his and they shared _peluwsa_ as Vegeta floated up and put them on the bed.

Piccolo didn’t even bother to tear their clothes off, he just used his magic to turn them to air. Vegeta chuckled against his lips. Vegeta crawled above him and swirled his tongue very delicately on the bulb of each of Piccolo’s antenna. Piccolo’s back arched helplessly off the bed, and he screamed, “Oh _fuck,_ Vegeta! You can’t…you…oh fuck!” Piccolo didn’t want to blow his load all over his bare belly without his mate even touching him, but that seemed to be Vegeta’s goal as he smirked mischievously and licked them more, started at the base and suckled each one carefully. 

Piccolo contained his climax through sheer stubbornness. He shouted and pleaded, “Fuck, Vegeta, give me more than that!” Piccolo decided if Vegeta wasn’t going to play fair, neither was he. He reached around and gripped Vegeta’s tail right at the base.

“Dove…” Vegeta said, a warning growl.

Piccolo started stroking it firmly, like a cock. Piccolo didn’t have a tail to twine with Vegeta’s, but he had learned during his pregnancy that Vegeta’s tail was erogenous regardless of what Piccolo touched it with, though his tail had a preference (well, all of Vegeta had a preference) for Piccolo’s _theadur._ Despite that, Piccolo knew how to work Vegeta’s tail with his hand, and while he usually saved it for when Vegeta approached his peak, sometimes Vegeta had to be taught a lesson.

Vegeta pulled his mouth off Piccolo’s antenna and rasped, “Holy shit, dove…are we…I was only…are we…I need you so badly, but if it’s not safe…” He pressed his mouth into Piccolo’s neck and bit his mating mark softly. “Gods, dove, please…”

Piccolo never got tired of hearing Vegeta plead to have his body. Piccolo moved so he could lick Vegeta’s mating mark. He kissed it. Sucked it. Bit it and Vegeta begged more incoherently, trying to tamp down his bossy, dominant desire to command Piccolo with the concern he felt for Piccolo’s well-being.

Piccolo trailed his claws down Vegeta’s torso, circling each nipple until the skin pulled up tight around them, gave each a little tug, a little twist. Vegeta gasped helplessly above him, no longer even able to suck Piccolo’s antennae he was so overcome. Piccolo’s hand on his tail steadily stroked up and down, occasionally added a little claw, and twisted at the base. Vegeta’s ass rose to meet Piccolo’s hand.

Piccolo’s other hand abandoned Vegeta’s nipples and after a quick squeeze on his cock, cupped Vegeta’s balls. He tugged a little, making Vegeta whine, like he was afraid Piccolo might hurt him, or at least make him feel so good the two sensations got confused. Vegeta’s hips couldn’t make up their mind now, tucking under to try to rub Vegeta’s prick on Piccolo’s hand and arm, to get more caresses on his balls, or buck back and out to give Piccolo better access to all the especially sensitive nerves at the base of his tail.

“Dove, please, have mercy on your prince…”

“Mmm…you’re a god now, do you rule over _all_ demi-gods?”

Vegeta came out of his haze a bit to push himself up out of Piccolo’s neck. He smirked down at Piccolo and said, “Oh, yes, I’m lord over all demigods. And I’m a vengeful god, dove. I never forget a single sin against me.”

“We aren’t supposed to have sex—“

“It’s been two weeks, dove—“

“ _And_ I had to get cleared by Dende—“

Vegeta groaned and his hips rolled helplessly toward Piccolo. “Fuck, can’t I at least suck you off or _something_?” Vegeta growled.

Piccolo kissed him hard, a furious, hungry kiss, then more teasing as Vegeta got even more excited. Piccolo pulled away and Vegeta grumbled and tried to get back to his mouth. “Dove…why are you torturing your god?”

“To tell him, if he would listen for two seconds, that I got cleared, so he can do whatever he wishes to my body.”

A smirk spread on Vegeta’s face, but faltered, his eyes darting back and forth, suddenly upset. He said, almost tearfully, “But…then…why…I’d almost forgotten, because of Kakarot, but I felt your anguish up at the Lookout, your _chi_ declined, like you were wounded! Do you…do you…not want me anymore?” Vegeta’s dark eyes snapped up to Piccolo’s.

“Vegeta, for fuck’s sake, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I want you. I’ve wanted you nonstop since I met you. I was trying to surprise you with sex after sneaking off to see Dende. But…he…he had other news. Bad news.” Piccolo couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. That he might not be able to give Vegeta any more children. That if Goku had succeeded in harming their eggs, Vegeta would never have the family he longed for. Piccolo was taking something away from Vegeta again with his defective body.

“Dove? Hey, dove, calm down, what’s wrong?” Vegeta, without saying anything more pressed his forehead to Piccolo’s. Piccolo let him, he found it easier that way, even if it made him a coward. He knew he would cry if he said the words aloud. 

Before Piccolo could feel any more morose, Vegeta snorted. “That’s what you’re worried about? You think I would be _angry_ that you were injured from bringing our children into the world? Years together and you still think I’m going to get pissed at you for nonsense! When have I _ever_ gotten pissed at you?!” he almost shouted.

Piccolo raised his eyebrows and felt a little smile creep onto his face. “Does right now count?”

Vegeta’s growling laugh was like accelerant on the kindling fire of lust that had been snuffed out by the memory of Dende’s words. Vegeta didn’t care and that was all that mattered to Piccolo. He lunged up to kiss him and pulled him frantically down. He gave Vegeta rough kisses, driving his tongue in his little mate’s mouth until Vegeta relented and kissed him back.

Vegeta’s purring started softly as Piccolo kissed and caressed him. It got louder and throatier the more he touched Piccolo, a telepathic murmuring of love spilling over into Piccolo’s mind and filling him up, easing all his fears, and eradicating the terror that had fluttered around the edges of his mind since Goku had found their eggs’ chi.

Vegeta snarled, “That fucker will never hurt my family. Never. I’ll keep you safe, dove. I’ll keep them safe. Always.”

“I know, Vegeta. I know. I just felt so helpless today.”

Vegeta’s sudden open-mouthed guffaw startled Piccolo so much that he jumped. Still laughing, Vegeta said, “You set that fucking clown on fire. I don’t think I’ve ever been more turned on by anything you’ve done that didn’t involve touching me. You got his hair, even. I didn’t see it coming. He didn’t either. You’re not helpless. You protected our babies.”

Piccolo flushed. He had, he supposed, helped keep them safe. But he couldn’t have done it without Vegeta.

“Stop belittling yourself, dove. I didn’t pick a weak mate. Of course you couldn’t beat a fucking Saiyan. Very few people in the entire damned universe can beat a Saiyan, but you made that fuckwit think twice about coming after your eggs again. A bird can’t kill a bear, but if it pecks the bear enough, the bear decides the eggs aren’t worth it. I think if I hadn’t been there, you would have set that moron on fire until he looked like a lightly roasted Nappa. He would have left you alone eventually because there would be no…no…ego boost. You wouldn’t be ‘the strongest,’ so beating you wouldn’t hold any appeal once he was charred.”

Vegeta shifted, got between Piccolo’s legs, and took hold of his cock. “Now, you’ve teased me long enough, dove, and I’m still recovering from my foolish time without you. So spread your legs for me, and take your god, let your god make you feel divine.”

Piccolo pulled his legs up, handed Vegeta the lube, and chuckled as he whispered, “I’m not calling you that…you’ll always be my prince. Even if you are divine.”

“Good…I love it, my Piccolo. My mate. My only. I love you,” Vegeta’s slippery fingers found Piccolo’s entrance, and Piccolo was tight. The stress of the day, combined with having only just been reunited with Vegeta, meant he had to focus more to relax now than he had since the very beginning of their relationship.

Vegeta’s fingers pulsed against him. Vegeta kissed along his jaw and whispered against his ear, “When I was apart from you, I could still remember how you felt on my cock, but I wouldn’t touch myself. I wouldn’t let myself have that release. Mating with you, Namek-fashion, was divine, but I’m starved for you, my heart. I can feel that you didn’t touch yourself either, did you? Were you saving yourself for your prince? Because your pleasure belongs to your prince.”

Piccolo tried to summon some of the breath control he used during meditation and training, but it all failed him. His chest heaved as Vegeta kept up that teasing touch. He gasped out, “There’s no pleasure without my prince. No happiness. No joy.”

Vegeta kissed him hard and finally thrust two fingers deep inside Piccolo’s ass, finding his prostate almost instantly. Piccolo felt a hot splash on his face as Vegeta pressed their foreheads together a few tears dripped out of Vegeta's eyes. Vegeta’s overwhelming sorrow that he’d hurt Piccolo took Piccolo’s breath away. The seismic wave of love that shook Piccolo right after that made him arch into Vegeta’s hand.

“You’re too good to your prince, dove. You love him too well. He doesn’t deserve you, but he loves you more than anything. He’ll never let you down again.”

Piccolo’s arousal was out of control, spreading in all directions, his whole body buzzing, and he breathed, “I can’t…Vegeta…I can’t handle…please…please, I need to come…please!”

“Yes, dove, come for me, gods, I love how you come for me. Come so hard, my only,” Vegeta purred and kept their heads together so he could feel Piccolo’s release.

The moment Piccolo’s ass started tightening and gripping Vegeta’s fingers, he took them away and his cock thrust smoothly and deeply inside Piccolo. He held himself still as Piccolo rode out his orgasm, enhanced by the fullness and the pressure from Vegeta’s prick. The last of his cum dripped out and he pleaded, “Fuck me, my prince, fuck me like you missed me. Like you can’t live without me.”

“I can’t, dove. Never again. I can’t ever be apart from you again. Please don’t ever send your prince away again. You’re my everything, Piccolo. Everything,” Vegeta gasped against Piccolo’s lips, beginning to roll his hips harder and harder, never letting Piccolo’s body drop back down after the rise of his first orgasm.

Piccolo curled up to meet Vegeta’s mouth more, the brushing touch not enough. Vegeta’s arms slid under Piccolo’s upper back and pulled him up farther. Piccolo splayed his legs and soon Vegeta was on his haunches, Piccolo on his lap, kissing down, curled over his little mate.

Vegeta gripped his ass, moving him languidly up and down as he drove up into Piccolo. “Gods, dove, I love how much of you there is, I love touching every inch of you,” Vegeta whispered and pulsed up hard into Piccolo making him whimper with pleasure, “inside and out. I love finding what makes your fucking perfect body go wild. I love it, dove, and I think,” Vegeta paused and slammed Piccolo down harder, earning a cry of ecstasy, hitting the perfect spot again, “that I found it. Can I get you off again, my heart? Without touching your cock? I love just watching your cum spill out of you when I fuck you just right.”

“I know, my prince, and you’re so godsdamned good at fucking me just right. Holy shit, yes, Vegeta, yes, yes, yes!”

Years of Vegeta’s expert love-making hadn’t made Piccolo any less appreciative of his skills. As he approached his peak again, his body flooded with warmth, and he threw his head back to scream. “Fuck! Vegeta! Come inside me, please! I need to feel it! Release inside me, my prince!”

“Fuck, yes! I need it, dove!” Vegeta growled and they came up off the bed Vegeta was so excited.

Piccolo felt the heat of it inside him and let himself go, making a mess of them and loving it. They were coated in the proof of their love, their lust, their hunger, inside and out. Vegeta yanked him down for a deep, hungry kiss. He kissed Piccolo through the final aftershocks of his climax. Vegeta lowered them back to the bed and collapsed onto Piccolo, knocking the wind out of him.

“How are you this fucking heavy, Vegeta?”

Vegeta chuckled, rose up on his elbows, and gave a soft rock of his hips. Vegeta’s cum dripped out of Piccolo and Vegeta purred, pulsing more as he said, “I believe I just lost a fair amount of weight, my heart.” He grinned and slid slowly out of Piccolo to move off him and snuggle beside him.

He wrapped his arm around Piccolo’s broad chest, heedless of the giz. Vegeta purred louder and he marked Piccolo lazily. “I can’t believe that motherfucker would hunt down our _eggs_. I knew he was depraved, but _eggs_? Ah well,” Vegeta said, and shook his head.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” Piccolo whispered, still in shock. He expected Vegeta to finally exact his revenge for Raditz's violation and murder.

“I know how you feel about Gohan," Vegeta said with a shrug.

“Really? So you chose to have to be constantly vigilant just to spare me my protege’s grief?” Piccolo said, and it surprised Piccolo that he was relieved his young pupil hadn't had to suffer again for his father's stupidity and selfishness.

“I did it for you. I’m not afraid of him anymore, dove. I spent so much time ruminating on what he’d done to me, and the fact that I couldn’t beat him, and that he _knew_. But I realized today, when he said all that disgusting stuff, I realized he’s pathetic. He’s unworthy of death by my hand. The heart disease that was supposed to come for him didn’t, but they used the medicine for his woman when she got it. Maybe the virus will take him yet, and for a Saiyan warrior, to die that way, is…shameful. To die by a prince’s hand? That’s noble. Kakarot isn’t noble. I know he’ll try to surpass me, but I’m not done. Dende, from his communication with powers higher than himself, who weren’t entirely pleased with my discovery, believes this is only the beginning. But I have all the motivation I need to become stronger, better, smarter, right here, in my arms.”

Piccolo buried his face in Vegeta’s hair as he squeezed him. “Should we cuddle the eggs for a bit? I’m tired. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.”

“Dove, you grew two entirely new beings a fortnight ago, I believe being tired is expected. Let’s bring them in. I love all four of us being together. Or five, when Trunks is here.”

“He and I had fun last weekend. We burned tail-holes in a whole bunch of diapers with chi blasts. He’s getting really good at it. And he almost flew. He floated a bit, but couldn’t control his direction. But I think I’m growing on him.”

“Of course you are. He loves you. You’re his daddy,” Vegeta said putting the eggs in their bright tube.

Piccolo felt a little choked up to hear that. He said, “What does he call you, if I’m his daddy?”

“ _Hoppi_ , it means daddy, well, specifically seeder-daddy, in Saiyan, though not a soul on Vegeta-sei would ever have said it outside the home. It’s…how do you say…mushy? It’s…sentimental. Saiyans are very loving with their mates everywhere, to make sure there’s no question of availability, but they are stern with their children in public.”

“And in private?” Piccolo said, hoping Vegeta wasn’t going to be harsh with their babies. Piccolo had a soft spot for babies. All children, really.

“Well, I suppose it varies, as with humans, but we’re loving in our own, ah, hmm…surly…way,” Vegeta said with a bit of a smirk, rising up to kiss Piccolo over their eggs.

“Hard to imagine _you_ being surly, Vegeta.”

Vegeta snorted. His smile dissolved almost immediately though. “Dende said that you’ve sustained some potentially irreversible damage?”

“Mmm-hmm. He tried to heal me, but it didn’t work. He said we’d have trouble conceiving again, if we could conceive at all. I’m really sorry, Vegeta, I know you want more.”

“Dove, don’t apologize, for fuck’s sake. I love you, and I’m delighted we were able to mate at all. Let’s love the young we have, and worry about more when that time comes. We’ll have our hands full with two Namek-Saiyan hybrids, maybe they’ll be such terrors that they’ll cure me of any desire for more,” he said. He spread his hand on Piccolo’s rock-hard abdomen and continued, “Though I’ll regret not getting to fuck you while you’re with child. Gods, you’re so fucking sexy pregnant.”

Piccolo laughed and shoved Vegeta back on the bed, kissed his mouth, and said, “You don’t have to reassure me anymore, Vegeta. I know how grotesque I was.”

Vegeta said nothing, but lubed himself and repositioned Piccolo with a raised eyebrow. Piccolo sank down on his little mate’s not-so-little cock and groaned. Seated deep inside Piccolo, Vegeta moaned and said, “Oh, dove, you’re so wrong. I was never bullshitting. I love it. I love knowing I did it to you. That you’re carrying _my_ child. It’s like a whole extra level of marking. Of making you mine. And you know I love to possess you.”

“You do, I’ve noticed that about you. You’re a bit possessive.”

Vegeta chuckled more, gripping Piccolo’s hips. Vegeta threw his head back with pleasure. “I am, dove, because you’re fucking _mine_ ,” Vegeta growled and started to fuck Piccolo slowly.

Piccolo rode his growly Saiyan and smiled down at him, kissed him more, and let his hands roam on Vegeta’s skin. He smiled, realizing that Raditz wasn’t there anymore. Not just while they fucked, but like he’d been haunting Vegeta all this time, and Vegeta had finally exorcised his deceased mate. It didn’t feel wrong or like Piccolo had taken something though. It felt more like Vegeta had finally let Raditz go. That Raditz was at peace now that Vegeta wasn’t constantly awash in grief.

Goku’s return and subsequent attack had terrified Piccolo, but he wondered now if besting Goku, successfully defending his mate and his young, had given Vegeta some peace. Given him permission to let his first love go. To love Piccolo more wholly. 

Piccolo watched Vegeta’s face as he became incoherent with pleasure while Piccolo slid up and down on his cock, faster and faster, his fingers pinching Vegeta's nipples. Piccolo found in his heart that he finally had peace too. Vegeta loved him. Vegeta chose him. Vegeta’s tail slinked off Piccolo’s thigh and around his waist, and naughty as always, it wrapped around Piccolo's dick. Piccolo grinned and bent down to brush his antennae over Vegeta’s forehead. His little mate’s eyes came open, hazy with lust, and a lazy smirk spread on his face.

“Not beating Goku, dove. Just you. You brought me peace. You’re all I need. All I want. I always chose you. I love you. And I can’t wait for our babies.”


	16. The Hatchlings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is male lactation in this chapter if that squicks you. Not a major thing, but it is mentioned. Happy reading! Comments and kudos are always welcome!

Piccolo’s only relief from his overwhelming nesting impulse was Vegeta fucking him. It was like being pregnant all over. They had everything ready, beyond ready, so it left Piccolo nothing to do. Nothing to prepare.

Bulma had thrown them a baby shower, revealing her fairly serious relationship with 17, and it had supplied them with even more baby gear. Piccolo and Vegeta tried to be grateful, but Goku’s looming presence, like a curse, tainted the whole experience for them.

Piccolo’s hyperactive little mate seemed only slightly less maddened by his own nesting instinct. Piccolo’s Namek body was set to a fourteen week clock and as they entered the nineteenth week, it was in confused, anxious overdrive. Vegeta had been in overdrive from the beginning, so although he was impatient as well, his behavior didn’t change much.

Piccolo and Vegeta trained as another source of distraction, but Vegeta devoted a fair amount of time to his projects. Piccolo was jealous of Vegeta’s many hobbies, as he at least could turn his nervous energy into something useful. Piccolo took to gardening, Dende giving him tips that he had learned since coming to Earth as he had a lovely garden on the Lookout. Growing fruits and vegetables was surprisingly gratifying, but Piccolo liked his flowers best.

Piccolo was deadheading in his garden, fidgety and anxious and feeling ready to crawl out of his own skin, when he heard the first loud crack. His eyes snapped up to the eggs in their incubator getting some sun while he tried to manage his hormone-driven insanity.

Before Piccolo could even call Vegeta from his workshop, he was out, his hands flipping the catch on the incubator to open it up. Piccolo stopped him and said, “Let’s get them inside, on the bed. I’m going to go clean up.”

Vegeta put the incubator in the bedroom, but followed Piccolo into the bathroom. Piccolo started to scrub himself, but Vegeta knocked him off his stool, onto his back, his hands gripping Piccolo’s thighs hard enough to leave marks. 

“Dove, I need you, fuck, I’m so excited, but I want you. I want to celebrate with you before they arrive,” Vegeta growled and his purr roared to life in Piccolo’s ear as he sucked it before covering Piccolo’s mouth with his own. His tongue found Piccolo’s fangs, gave Piccolo the taste of his blood, and drove deeper in Piccolo’s mouth. Fucked his mouth. Vegeta’s hands only caressed his thighs, but Piccolo was already panting like they were mid-fuck. It didn’t help that Vegeta was brushing his forehead against Piccolo’s antennae, sending pulses of want and lust and hunger into Piccolo’s mind.

“Vegeta,” Piccolo gasped as his little mate bit and sucked down his neck onto his nipple. “Fuck me, please, oh fuck, you’re driving me crazy…”

Vegeta’s hips snapped forward, driving into Piccolo’s _theadur_ and they moaned together, into each other. Vegeta slammed into him desperately. His purring became an unending growl of pleasure. He kept trying to kiss over Piccolo’s skin, to touch him everywhere, but it was as if his mouth couldn’t stand to be away from Piccolo’s for more than a few seconds.

“Vegeta, fuck, Vegeta, my prince…” Piccolo gasped again and again, needing his mate to keep fucking him, wishing he could purr himself because he felt so good. Electric pleasure skittered out from his sheath every time Vegeta pumped into him.

Vegeta’s back arched as he thrust deeper inside Piccolo. He shifted so he could run a hand over Piccolo’s damp skin and his other hand took hold of Piccolo’s prick. Piccolo cried out and fucked up into Vegeta’s wet, soapy fist.

Vegeta panted, “Come for me, dove, I want to release inside you. I need it. Come for your mate, dove.” Vegeta thrust harder and returned to kissing Piccolo.

Piccolo obeyed his prince, and he reveled in their combined ecstasy. He wanted to keep kissing Vegeta, so he whimpered with pleasure as his cum spilled over Vegeta’s knuckles in time with Vegeta filling him. Vegeta kissed and stroked and thrust, all while tilting his head just enough to pour his love and satisfaction, excitement and terror, all a jumbled mess, into Piccolo’s mind. Piccolo pushed his own heady emotions back.

They heard a crack and a high-pitched growl, loud enough to be heard over their heavy breathing and the bath running. Vegeta pulled out of Piccolo and cleaned him up, even as he marked Piccolo too. Piccolo shut off the bath, there would be no time for that. They scrubbed each other quickly, unable to stop kissing.

Vegeta purred and smirked against Piccolo’s lips. He whispered, “Dove, you’re still hard.”

“You won’t stop kissing me, my prince, I can’t help it.”

“I can’t stop kissing you, you’re too fucking perfect, my heart.”

More cracks and squawks forced them to finish their heated bath faster than they wished. They dried with chi and each threw on a pair of shorts. Vegeta zipped around getting diapers and the receiving blankets he’d made, tiny pajamas with tail holes, and the little stuffed animals he’d crocheted for each of them: a giraffe for one, a hippo for the other. 

Vegeta continued searching for other baby accoutrements until Piccolo grabbed his wrist and said gently, “Stop, Vegeta. Relax. You aren’t going to lose your limbs once they hatch. Just…be with us. Come on. Let’s get them settled on the bed. Let’s get ourselves settled. Dende said it can be a slow process. Come here, lie with me, kiss me more, my only.”

Vegeta crawled above Piccolo after ensuring the eggs were safely ensconced in a pile of blankets so they wouldn’t roll. He teased Piccolo’s mouth, barely brushing their lips together. He purred and said, “Fuck, dove, the bath didn’t even take the edge off…”

Piccolo flipped Vegeta onto the bed, pinned his hands above his head. “You want me to fuck you, see if that helps?”

Vegeta’s eyebrows came together. He said, “Do you…are you satisfied?”

Piccolo laughed and kissed roughly over Vegeta’s chest. “Really, my prince? You satisfy me every time we make love, but I’m _never_ satisfied. I always want you more. I need you more.”

Vegeta gripped Piccolo’s hips and tensed his abs to come up off the bed and kiss Piccolo more deeply. His hands fluttered up Piccolo’s body and onto his face, he brushed his thumbs over Piccolo’s cheekbones. Piccolo loved Vegeta so intensely it almost hurt. He rocked his hips to rub their cocks together through their shorts and Vegeta moaned and grinned. He whispered, “Gods, your fucking prick, dove, no matter what it’s doing, it feels so fucking good. I just want—“

A squeaky, angry, and very loud roar stopped them both, and they turned to see their first baby thrust its face half out of its egg. It growled at them and an arm shot out beside its face.

“Dove, it looks just like you!” Vegeta cried.

The little green head thrashed and finally its whole body broke free. It’s silky black tail lashed wildly and it crawled on wobbly arms and legs onto Vegeta’s chest. It smacked its face into his pec and sucked hard on the edge of his armpit.

Vegeta chuckled and moved their baby, attached like a lamprey, across his chest onto his nipple. The baby sucked furiously and Vegeta’s eyes went wide after a moment. He looked up at Piccolo and said, grinning, “Nameks have unreal magic.”

Piccolo kissed up the baby’s tiny smooth back and smelled its tiny skull. “Oh, Vegeta, smell, smell, smell!”

“I already have, dove, I could smell them before they hatched.”

“I know, but they smell so good up close, their little scalp,” Piccolo said. He checked the baby’s sex and said, “Her, _her_ little scalp! It’s a baby girl. I didn’t even know that was possible!”

Vegeta pulled Piccolo’s face down to his and kissed him deeply. “Dove, I’m a seeder, and yet I’m nursing our child, I think maybe anything is possible with you.”

Piccolo laughed and turned when the other egg began to shake and crack. Its growls were muffled by the mostly intact shell. Vegeta said, “Don’t help it, it’s a Saiyan, it’ll get out on its own.”

“I wasn’t going to help it, come on, Vegeta, give me a little credit. I’m hardly a…a…”

“A dove?” Vegeta said with a little chortle.

Piccolo couldn’t help the fierce kiss he gave his little mate for teasing him. Once Vegeta was thoroughly kissed, he said, “What should we name her?”

Vegeta looked completely flummoxed by the question until he stammered, “Naila? In honor of him changing you just enough that I didn’t murder you on Namek?” Vegeta looked so nervous that Piccolo burst out laughing.

“That’s a great idea. I bet Dende will really like that too,” Piccolo said, and a huge chunk of eggshell hit his arm. He turned to see a snarling mini Vegeta wobbling its way toward Piccolo. It bit Piccolo’s thigh, and given how much it hurt without teeth, he had a small flare of terror at what it would feel like _with_ teeth.

Piccolo scooped up the angry, wild-haired child, only distinguishable from Vegeta by its little antennae, and pressed it to his nipple. It nursed grumpily, amazing Piccolo at how young Vegeta’s surliness must have started, how genetic it was. “He's a boy, Vegeta. Hey—we could name him Raditz! Or would that make you too sad?” Piccolo said and hoped he hadn’t upset his mate on this happy occasion.

Vegeta’s eyes widened and a shocked smile spread on his face. He sat up and kissed Piccolo hard and whispered, “You’re so sweet, dove, I don’t deserve you, but I’m never letting you go. I would love that, if you’re truly okay with it.”

Piccolo met his kiss eagerly, but eventually pulled away, and whispered, “Of course, my prince.”

* * *

Sleepless, harried weeks passed. Bulma had given them the best gift of all by keeping Trunks while they figured out how to parent what were essentially hyper-intelligent, extremely strong, hyena cubs. They chewed everything like puppies, they climbed everything like gibbons, and they ate everything like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Even Vegeta was exhausted and he had more energy than anyone Piccolo had ever met. Piccolo and his Saiyan mate fell into bed each night and rarely even fucked they were so tired. They took turns, Vegeta nursing one night, Piccolo the next, so they each at least got occasional nights of sleep.

“Radzy! Stop chewing the godsdamned couch!” Piccolo cried, trying to eat before Naila was up too. Radzy gave him a dark look and started to float. They were seven weeks old, already walking (who was Piccolo kidding, they were already fucking running), cutting teeth, and in the last few days, both of them had been egging the other on to fly. Vegeta, of course, was delighted. Piccolo, seemingly the only one in the house who thought a two year old that could achieve super-Saiyan God was a terrible plan, tried to reason with Vegeta, but his little mate could hardly keep his squeals of joy at bay, he so badly wanted to start training them.

Vegeta stumbled out to join Piccolo. Both of them had gone from coffee being a pleasant enough morning beverage to a bodily necessity. Before even greeting his mate, Vegeta poured himself a giant mug. He drank half of it, then kissed Piccolo and murmured, “Morning, dove.”

Vegeta had taken the night before and he looked vaguely like he’d been attacked by a hoard of zombie vampires. He downed the rest of the coffee and refilled his mug. He began absently shoving food in his mouth, whatever food he could find.

Piccolo rubbed his little mate’s back and said, “Rough night, my prince?”

“Fuck, they ate every twenty minutes. I had to nurse them with the fridge open so I could eat while they nursed. I need to go to the store again today. Where is it all going? I don’t change that many diapers. Can they have tapeworms? Is that something a baby can be born with?”

“Hoppi!” Radzy shouted, noticing Vegeta was up, and launched into Vegeta, mouthing his jaw.

“Radzy! Teeth, teeth! You’re sharp now, you can’t put Hoppi or Daddy in your mouth,” Vegeta hissed. Piccolo noticed he had tiny little fang-marks around one nipple. 

“But I hungry, Hoppi!”

“Daddy will have to feed you, babu, you sucked Hoppi dry.”

Piccolo caught his flying son and put him on a thankfully toughened nipple. He and Vegeta had both suffered through painful, blistered, and cracked nipples from their demanding, parasitic young. Radzy ate voraciously, and Piccolo felt his own agonizing starvation as his son sucked every spare calorie out of him. He hurried to the back-up fridge and ate what he could find while Radzy guzzled. Radzy flopped to the other side.

After eating the last of their hardboiled eggs, a giant bowl of oatmeal, and a whole bunch of bananas, Piccolo thought he might survive through Naila’s feeding once she woke up. He heard her stirring and though he loved her, the sound filled him with dread. “Vegeta, I think two might be my limit.”

Vegeta, still looking disheveled, his wild hair somehow even wilder, turned wide-eyed to Piccolo and said, “Can you imagine if we had another set of twins?”

Piccolo and Vegeta shuddered together at the thought. Radzy jumped down, but managed to catch himself and float awkwardly toward the nursery. “Don’t wake Naila!”

“Not! Go potty!”

Both babies had been potty-training themselves, which Piccolo was very happy about, because Vegeta might not change that many diapers, but Piccolo certainly did. Piccolo shouted, “Mind your aim, babu, you shit on the floor last time!” They sometimes mixed practice flying with practicing using the potty: it was not a good combination.

“My poor dove, eat some more food, you’re crabby,” Vegeta said, smirking as he drank more coffee.

“Fuck, Vegeta, how are we going to survive them?”

“They have to start eating solid food, dove, or one of us will wake up to a desiccated corpse as a mate.”

“They’re way too young for that!” Piccolo said, despondent.

“Piccolo, they aren’t human, you have to stop reading the fucking human baby books! We’re on our own here,” Vegeta said and pulled Piccolo down to kiss his jaw.

“Fuck. Maybe Dende has some ideas? Or even Bulma? Although they're both farther along than Trunks already, how is that going effect him? I hope it doesn’t upset him that his younger siblings are surpassing him in strength.”

“Daddy! I hungry!” Naila called and came barreling out of the nursery into Piccolo's legs. She shimmied up his side and latched on without a bit of consideration for Piccolo’s autonomy. He sighed. He no longer even held them half the time. They clung to him like little baboons and he could just go about his business, while gradually being drained unto starvation. “Daddy, still hungry, no milk!”

“Naila, Radzy just ate, can you give me a minute to eat something?”

“Hoppi!” she launched and managed to pretty competently fly to Vegeta. He caught her and slung her into a nursing position, shoving what food he could eat one handed into his mouth.

Vegeta winced as Naila pinched a handful of skin to pull herself to Vegeta’s other side. “Gods, dove, they’re parasites. What have we done?”

“What’s parasite?” Naila pulled off to ask.

“Nothing, sweet pea, finish up,” Vegeta said, pecking her nose with a little kiss.

“Made it in the potty, Daddy!” Radzy called from the bathroom and came floating out naked.

“Great, babu, go get dressed.”

“No!”

Vegeta shot Radzy a stern look and he landed and sprinted to get dressed. It irritated Piccolo that his stern look didn’t have the same effect, like they could sense his soft spot for babies. That he was less likely to eat them than Vegeta.

Piccolo’s phone rang. It was Bulma. He almost burst into tears imagining having Trunks on top of their frenetic tape worms.

“Dove? It’ll be alright, here, give me the phone,” Vegeta took it and Piccolo realized he _had_ burst into to tears. “What, Bulma? Have mercy and don’t make us take Trunks yet, we’re dying over here. What? Seriously? Woman, you have no idea what they’re like. Yes, fine, very well. Tomorrow afternoon.” Vegeta hung up and Piccolo got himself under control.

Naila dropped off Vegeta and tackled Radzy. They gnawed on each other, flipping around, floating off the ground, bashing so hard into the couch that it scooted across the floor. Vegeta and Piccolo both groaned when Naila’s hands began to glow with chi. 

Vegeta nodded toward Naila and said, “Fuck, see, I have to train them or they’ll just start inadvertently blowing shit up.”

“I know, my prince, but then they’ll be able to purposefully blow _us_ up,” Piccolo said. He bent and kissed Vegeta. He pulled Vegeta tighter against him while their twins battled for dominance. Kissed his little mate more and whispered, “Gods, Vegeta, I need you. Nap-time? Okay? Promise? We won’t just fall asleep with food in our hands?”

Vegeta groped Piccolo’s ass and murmured, “Let’s go in the bedroom now. They’re going to be at it for a while.”

“Vegeta!”

“I don’t care, they’re so feral, even if they catch us, it doesn’t matter.”

“We can lock the door…”

Vegeta shouted, “Stay out of Hoppi and Daddy’s room or no more nursing!”

They both growled and hissed, moving toward Vegeta, who threw Piccolo over his shoulder. Piccolo was unsurprised when Vegeta made a terrifying yowling noise back at them, and they scampered into the nursery, and judging by sound alone, continued to maul each other.

Vegeta tossed Piccolo on the bed and leapt on top of him once he’d locked the door. He kissed Piccolo savagely and tore his pants off. Piccolo’s breath already came in fast, gulping gasps, his dick so hard it ached. He yanked Vegeta’s shorts off and without even a bit of foreplay, pulled Vegeta inside his sheath. They groaned with relief. They hadn’t had sex in days, and were accustomed to having it multiple times per day.

“Fuck, dove, it’s all I can do not to come immediately. Gods, we have to start making them sleep longer…”

“Stop talking about them and fuck me, Vegeta. If you come I’m just going to fuck you until you’re ready to fuck me again.”

“Fuck yes, dove. You feel incredible,” Vegeta gasped and kissed all over Piccolo’s neck and shoulders before sucking Piccolo’s lips as he rocked into Piccolo hard. “Do you want me to release? I don’t want to risk pregnancy.”

“Dende said we’ll be lucky to ever get pregnant again, but certainly not the first eighteen months after giving birth.”

Vegeta groaned low in his throat, covering his purring. Piccolo admired his mate’s beautiful body, which he so rarely got to enjoy these days. Vegeta held himself up with straight arms, his head thrown back, and he lowered it to look at Piccolo. Their eyes met with acrackle of love and lust. Vegeta bent and dragged his forehead over Piccolo’s antennae.

“Oh, shit…” Piccolo breathed and came hard, his whole pelvis thrumming and clenching as his sheath gripped Vegeta. Its muscles seized and released again and again and set Piccolo’s cock off too. He clawed at Vegeta and begged, “Come in me, my prince, release in me, oh fuck, yes, I want to feel you come in me…”

Vegeta kissed him hard. Piccolo loved the taste of his mate, even exhausted, unbrushed, tainted by coffee and any food he could find, Piccolo wanted more. He pushed his own tongue into Vegeta’s mouth as Vegeta gasped and filled Piccolo. He purred loudly as he thrust a final few times.

They panted and gasped as they continued kissing. Piccolo pleaded, “Tonight, too, okay, my prince? I just…fuck…sharing _peluwsa_ was so nice. Gods, I just need it. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for lusting for me, dove. I love it. I’ve wanted you too, but the little leeches have been destroying you. I didn’t want to take even more of your fluids,” Vegeta said with a smirk and dragged his tongue through the thick splatter of cum on Piccolo’s belly.

“Mmm…well, we do need to consume every calorie possible, don’t let it go to waste…” Piccolo teased.

“Gods, dove, you taste so good. We so rarely even fuck these days that I dream about having your cock in my mouth, your _theadur_ and your ass on my tongue. We truly didn’t appreciate how often we got to love each other before our demons hatched.”

“I know. I thought they’d be…more human…than this. I love them though, so much. Even if they are eating me alive.”

“Too true, dove. I’ll go to the store after I take a quick shower.”

“Are you sure? You went last time.”

“I don’t mind, dove. The capsule Bulma gave me makes it so much easier and they know me now, order extra of the things we really go through. I hope if the hellions potty train in the next couple days I can get back to cooking a bit. Oh, fuck, and Bulma is having some sort of gathering at her place tomorrow and she would desperately like for us to come so that everyone can meet the twins. And poor Trunksy hasn’t even met his brother and sister yet, so we need to go, I fear.”

“Vegeta…do you hear how quiet it is?”

“Shit, I bet they’re in my shop,” Vegeta rocketed out of bed and flew through the house, shorts in hand.

Piccolo heard soft laughter as he stepped into his pants and followed his mate to find his twin terrors. Vegeta stared out the window. Piccolo joined him and saw their little monsters.

They were outside, not in the shop, but very high up in a tree, goading each other to jump. Piccolo sighed. “They won’t die?”

“No, I’ll go out and be on guard, but I think they’ve mastered their chi enough to at least break the fall, but if not, you know how they are, impervious to damage.”

“I know. Gods, I hope they don’t turn on us.”

Vegeta’s smug smile made Piccolo happy, no matter how tired and hungry and beset he was. He kissed Vegeta more, stroked his cock a little through his shorts, and whispered, “Thanks for fucking me, my prince. I love you. I’ll go watch them, you go to the store. I’m starving.”

“There’s still several of those hearty muffins I made. Have those and the last of the orange juice. There’s also the crate of peaches in the pantry. But I mean it, dove, we have to start giving them solid food. I keep expecting you to become transparent you’ve lost so much weight to their insatiability.”

“We’ll see. Go on. I’ll survive on my own for a bit.”

* * *

The next day they flew to Bulma’s and Piccolo was both proud and horrified when the babies did a respectable job of keeping up with their fathers. When they got tired, they each wrapped around one of their father’s necks and rested before launching off into the air again.

“Get meet Trunksy brother, right, Hoppi?” they both asked again and again.

“Yes, and you need to be less…feral…he’s half-human. And what do we say about humans?”

“Be nice, they break easier!” both babies cried in unison.

“That’s right my sweet demons. And Mama Bulma is to be respected. No biting. No insolence. No climbing. You’re getting too heavy for that,” Vegeta said. Piccolo was glad Vegeta had prepped the babies. They _were_ getting heavy. He had hoped they’d have Namek density, not Saiyan, since Piccolo grew them, but if anything, they somehow seemed to be even more physics-defying than their seeder-father. Getting hit by either one was painful if they were moving full speed and he wasn’t ready. Like lovey cannonballs fired at point-blank range.

“I feel Trunksy, Daddy!” Naila cried. She had a talent already for sensing chi, and Piccolo had been nurturing this skill. Dende thought she would be a talented mage and had asked to be allowed to mentor her when she got a little older. She’d already accomplished minor magic, only telekinesis, not yet actually changing the structure of anything, but the girl was still a baby.

Piccolo scooped Naila into his arms as they landed. At speed both his children tended to skid to a stop rather than touch down. Vegeta caught Radzy before he could road-rash off his entire front side. They carried their offspring as though they were Earthling babies, but Piccolo knew that farce wouldn’t last more than a minute or two.

Trunks slammed into Vegeta and hugged him tightly before winging into Piccolo’s arms. “Hoppi! Daddy! Mama has news!”

Vegeta raised an eyebrow at Piccolo, but said nothing, simply followed their lavender haired son. Vegeta stopped suddenly, rubbed his jaw aggressively on Piccolo, and Piccolo saw his hackles raise. Piccolo heard, just as Vegeta must have smelled, that Goku was at the gathering. Vegeta marked Piccolo more, and Piccolo knew it wasn’t territorial, as Vegeta would never allow Goku anywhere near his mate, but to comfort both of them. Piccolo hated being anywhere near Goku, but neither he nor Vegeta wanted to alienate Bulma.

The sun was low in the sky as they came up on the large patio and saw Goku amongst the same group of people as their baby shower. Bulma saw them and waved cheerfully. She hurried over, as did Krillin, both trailed by an android. Bulma squealed, “Aw! I finally get to the meet them! I can’t believe you’ve kept them hidden so long. Were you worried about their immune systems?” Bulma held out her arms, clearly expecting a human infant to be placed in her supportive hold.

As if on cue, Radzy shimmied down Vegeta’s leg, hanging by his two tiny fangs when one hand slipped, and took off after Trunks the second his feet hit the ground. “Brother Trunksy, I Radzy! Have hug!” Radzy cried and bowled his older brother over with his exuberant affection. Trunks was still a Saiyan though, and happily began wrestling. Naila flew over to her brothers and bit Radzy, but paused to shout, “I not bite brother Trunksy, Hoppi!”

Vegeta nodded and called, “Only Radzy, Naila, I mean it! Or _I’ll_ bite _you_.” Piccolo resisted the urge to facepalm as the eyes staring at them grew wide as Vegeta publicly announced his very specific form of child abuse. Piccolo knew they’d all feel differently if they’d had their very sensitive nipples bitten by a Saiyan-Namekian baby with fangs and jaws like a jaguar.

Everyone at the party gaped as his children skittered around, very physically coordinated and strong, speaking as well as Trunks, and Naila began showing off the chi glow she could build in her palms. Piccolo’s pride achieved Prince of All Saiyan levels. His offspring were astounding. He loved them so fiercely. Loved his mate so fiercely. 

Though Bulma had clearly forgotten her question as her bugged out eyes followed the twins, Vegeta answered anyway, “No, we have simply been run ragged. We struggle to even eat enough to survive. This—” he gestured to Radzy scaling a wall and jumping down again once he was about twenty feet off the ground, “is why you haven’t met them.”

Bulma regained herself first and said, “I’ll say, poor Piccolo looks like he’s wasting away. Jeez, Vegeta, feed your mate.”

Piccolo bit out, “Don’t talk to him that way—“

“Dove, she’s joking,” Vegeta said softly and slid his hand onto Piccolo’s lower back, under his shirt, and the skin to skin contact with his mate was soothing.

“Sorry, Bulma. I’m a little sleep-deprived.” Piccolo, aside from being in a generally depleted state, was on edge with Goku lurking so close to Piccolo and Vegeta’s babies.

Bulma grabbed their arms, earning a horrified look from Vegeta as he swatted her hand away from Piccolo. She said, unbothered by Vegeta’s correction, “Come eat, you two. I can’t imagine newborns that can fly. Trunks is hard enough to manage and he’s over two.”

Piccolo couldn’t have turned down food if he wanted to, his body compelled him to eat. Vegeta’s too, and they inhaled plate after plate, watching their offspring play with the other children, very careful and mindful of their fragile humanity.

Krillin munched lightly while Piccolo voraciously consumed everything he could reach. Krillin said, his eyes still wide watching the twins, “How…how old are they?”

“Seven weeks, I think? It all blurs together a bit. They just never stop eating. We’re both so tired and hungry constantly.”

“I’ll bet. Man, Piccolo, I gotta tell ya, when you gushed to me about Vegeta a few years ago, it wasn’t that I didn’t believe you guys were in love, but it was all so wild. I had no idea. And you have not stopped blowing my mind. I can’t believe you laid two eggs. And now have flying infants. Did…did the green one—“

“Naila, they have names, Krillin. The other one is Radzy, well, Raditz, but we call him Radzy,” Piccolo mumbled around his thirteenth plate of food. He didn’t even know what he was eating, he was just so happy to be eating uninterrupted. Piccolo saw that Radzy was on the brink of a meltdown he was so hungry, but didn't want to stop playing. “Hold on,” Piccolo said out loud to Krillin, then in his mind said, _My prince, can you feed Radzy or he’s going to eat Goten._

Vegeta finished devouring another heaping plate, but nodded in Piccolo’s direction. Vegeta moved faster than humans could see and scooped Radzy up. Radzy giggled as Vegeta kissed his nose. Vegeta pulled up his shirt and nursed their son. It made Piccolo’s heart swell, and parts beyond, if he was being honest, to see Vegeta care for their children. 

The sudden silence made Piccolo glance around as he continued to shovel food in his mouth. Piccolo hadn’t even considered the fact that he or Vegeta nursing would bewilder the humans. He shrugged and was about to turn back to Krillin when his skin crawled as he heard Goku.

“Hey, Vegeta, I hear you named that one Raditz, but he doesn’t smell like Raditz yet. Will he smell like Raditz when he’s older?” Goku said, swaggering toward Vegeta.

Piccolo was by his mate’s side in an instant. Vegeta said, _Take the children in case I have to rumble_. But Radzy jumped down in front of Vegeta and growled, his tail lashing back and forth. “Leave Hoppi alone!” He let out another little warning roar at Goku.

Piccolo took Radzy and Naila’s hands and pulled them away from Goku. Piccolo let flames erupt all over his skin as a reminder to his nemesis. Goku watched Piccolo and it made him nauseous, thinking about the things Goku had threatened, thinking about the implication of Goku’s words about his son. But Goku returned his attention to Vegeta.

Vegeta stood completely unbothered, his arms crossed tightly. “Only a perverse fuckwit like you would say such a thing about a child.”

“Come on, Vegeta, let’s fight again, I’ve been training. Don’t you want revenge for me killing your weakling mate, Raditz? For your dead baby? Huh? Come on, Vegeta, see if you can actually beat me. Last time was luck. Come have your vengeance,” Goku said, lowering himself into fighting stance.

Vegeta threw his head back and laughed. He tried to get ahold of himself, but he only laughed harder. Piccolo waited to see what this portended. Goku looked suddenly wary, a flicker of fear crossing his vapid features.

Vegeta wiped at the tears forming in his eyes as he calmed a little, merely chuckling now. He said, “You fucking idiot, I _have_ my vengeance. The best I can imagine. Nothing I could do to you would be more satisfying than the punishment I’ve meted out against you.”

“What?” Goku said, scratching his head a little, nervous, as though Vegeta had some slow-acting attack that he didn’t know he’d been hit with. “If you’re talking about winning last time—“

“No, Kakarot, while besting you in battle is always a delight, _that_ is not my vengeance. My vengeance stands behind me. I love my life. I’m happy and fulfilled and enjoy every minute that I draw breath. And I’m too powerful for you to take any of it away. I didn’t know it until I spared your pathetic ass. I read once that the best vengeance is a life well-lived, and whoever said that was _right_. I fucking love getting up every morning. I love being with my mate every day. Raising our children. And you only cross my mind when I have the misfortune of being at the same fucking party. Go do what you do that passes for living. My vengeance is complete and perfect.”

“That’s not vengeance, it’s just love—“

“Love or vengeance, I don’t care what you call it, Kakarot. I’m happy. I don’t give a fuck about you,” Vegeta said and approached Piccolo, who had finished feeding Radzy, but now Naila was starving, so Vegeta took her.

Piccolo felt Goku power up, but in a flash, Vegeta turned, his eyes blowing up, rimmed with dark pink, his hair turning from a black flame to actual fire. Goku’s power simmered back down and he backed away. He looked around, snorted, and tried to make light of his words. Piccolo watched as everyone carefully avoided him, one after another, until Goku was left standing alone. Even his own wife and children tried to distance themselves.

As they flew home later that evening, after Bulma had announced her engagement to 17, they each carried a completely exhausted baby. Vegeta bumped Piccolo’s shoulder with his as they flew and looked Piccolo up and down dramatically when Piccolo turned.

“Not too tired, dove?”

“Gods, Vegeta, I got to eat so much food. I feel better than I have in weeks.”

Vegeta grunted happily. “Me too, my heart. Me too. And I’m going to show you how much better I feel when we get home. I’m just going to pin these two in their cribs with chi restraints so I can ravish you all night. Feed them both in the morning.”

Piccolo laughed and they kissed as they flew, Vegeta twining his fingers with Piccolo’s.

They hurriedly put their worn out offspring to bed and tumbled into their own bed, ripping each other’s clothes off, and kissing aggressively. Piccolo gasped as Vegeta knocked his legs apart and bent to lick his _theadur_. Vegeta purred and whispered, “Fuck, I needed this so badly. I couldn’t wait for that stupid party to end…”

His tongue was insistent, impatient, and Piccolo felt Vegeta try to draw it out, try to tease, but his tongue plunged inside Piccolo after only a few passes. Piccolo’s hips moved ceaselessly towards the perfection of his mate’s mouth, and groaned Vegeta’s name.

Vegeta cupped Piccolo’s ass in his hands and pushed his tongue deeper inside Piccolo. When Piccolo started to tremble, Vegeta growled, “Not yet, dove, you wait for your prince.”

Piccolo smiled in the dark and whispered, “You aren’t going to tease me tonight, are you, my prince?”

Vegeta crawled up Piccolo’s body, sucking and kissing, and Piccolo regretted saying anything because he wanted Vegeta’s mouth back on his sheath, his tongue inside Piccolo again. Vegeta kissed him and murmured, “Dove, you do as your prince commands. Don’t argue.” Vegeta nipped back down to Piccolo’s _theadur_ , sucking the exterior and plundering it again with his tongue.

He pushed three fingers inside Piccolo and Piccolo groaned, arched toward Vegeta, who said, “Careful, dove, careful…” with a brisk little slap on Piccolo’s ass.

Vegeta lubed himself and whispered, “I’m going to fuck you, dove, but you’ll wait, yes? You’ll be good for your prince?”

Piccolo nodded, his whole pelvis aching with want. Vegeta kept his fingers inside Piccolo’s sheath, but pulled Piccolo’s hips up and eased into Piccolo’s ass with punishing slowness. Piccolo knew if he pulled Vegeta inside him, Vegeta would withdraw, but he wanted more, faster, harder.

He scratched lightly up and down Vegeta’s thighs as he started rocking into Piccolo. Piccolo whispered, “My prince, you’re not hitting my spot. You’re not giving your mate what he needs.”

Vegeta smirked down at Piccolo and pushed his hand up to his thumb into Piccolo’s sheath. Piccolo quaked, resisting the powerful _theadur_ orgasm that bubbled just below the surface. Vegeta watched him and twisted his hand back and forth, his knuckles adding delightful texture to the friction and pressure. He pulled his hand out completely as he finished driving into Piccolo’s ass.

Vegeta growled, “Dove, you better not be trying to control your prince, or you’ll be punished.” Vegeta took his dick out of Piccolo, so Piccolo had nothing.

He whimpered and his hips moved helplessly toward Vegeta. Vegeta shifted Piccolo's legs up over his shoulders, but reached around them and used his forefingers to push Piccolo’s extra sensitive nipples around in tiny circles. Piccolo arched for more touch, and this Vegeta allowed, taking each nipple between his finger and thumb and pinching and twisting them until Piccolo pleaded, “My prince…I love you…please…”

“Mmm…are you going to behave, dove?”

“I’ll be good, I promise.”

“You are good, dove, too good for your prince…fuck,” Vegeta groaned as he sank back into Piccolo’s gaping ass.

Piccolo bit his tongue to stop himself from going off. He wanted Vegeta to give him the insane release that always came after Vegeta teased him like this, but Piccolo was also a tinderbox for pleasure because of how little time they had to fuck since the babies hatched. Piccolo brushed his fingertips over his own cock, just to see Vegeta’s reaction.

Vegeta grabbed Piccolo’s hand and pushed it lower, pushed his long fingers into his _theadur_. Vegeta breathed, his purring almost drowning out the words, “If you want to help, dove, you can, but you do as _I_ say.”

Piccolo pulsed his fingers inside his sheath, but he knew it was a mistake. He would never last, not like this, it was hard enough to control himself when Vegeta was touching him, when Piccolo couldn’t have more, but with his own hand in the mix, Piccolo would lose it. He pulled it away, but Vegeta seized his wrist.

“Ah, ah, ah, dove, you wanted to play, now you play for your prince,” Vegeta said, sucking and kissing along the inside of Piccolo’s knees as he started to thrust harder into Piccolo’s very eager, very sensitive ass. Vegeta hit his spot and Piccolo cried out. That made Vegeta smirk, made his eyelids fall heavy, his purring got deeper, and he hit it again, and again, and again.

Piccolo gasped and tried to focus on anything but how amazing Vegeta was making him feel. Vegeta’s hand was over Piccolo’s where Piccolo had three fingers buried in his own sheath. Piccolo rarely masturbated anymore thanks to Vegeta’s tireless sexual appetite, so it was even more titillating to feel his own tight, velveteen sheath.

“My prince…I…”

“Not yet, dove, not yet, relax your hand for me, my heart,” Vegeta whispered, his voice husky. It turned Piccolo on even more that Vegeta was losing his own hold on his pleasure, shaking a little even.

Vegeta’s hand formed Piccolo’s into a pointed fist, his thumb against his fingertips, and he growled, “Gods, dove, I want to watch you push inside yourself. Do it for your prince.” Vegeta panted as his fingers dragged along Piccolo’s hand as Piccolo moved to obey.

“Holy shit, my prince, I’ve never…holy shit…” Piccolo let Vegeta control his hand, gave his body over to his only, to his mate, because he knew his prince would take care of him.

“Fuck, dove, I’m going to let you slide all the way inside, and I’m going to pound you, and then I want you to come with me, yes? Come with your prince?”

Piccolo nodded, breathing hard and fast, his eyes locked on Vegeta’s dark, passionate gaze. Vegeta’s fingers stayed on Piccolo’s fist enough that they moved into him too, making him fuller and tighter than he’d ever been outside of bearing their eggs, especially with Vegeta’s thick cock buried up to the hilt in his ass.

Vegeta’s other hand gripped Piccolo’s hip and slammed against him, hitting his p-spot so hard it was like a volcanic eruption inside Piccolo, the heat and power of the pleasure almost overwhelming his control, but he stared into Vegeta’s eyes, clung to their dark depths to hold on. Vegeta hit it again and again, pushed Piccolo’s hand farther inside himself, which felt so good, and he could feel Vegeta’s cock moving inside himself.

“Now, dove, come for me. Come for your prince,” Vegeta purred out. His eyes never left Piccolo’s. Piccolo forced his own to stay open as the surge of ecstasy ripped through him when he let go of the reins on his pleasure, crying out and cum poured out of him, sliding down his belly.

Vegeta’s mouth fell open and he wailed as he filled Piccolo, releasing inside him as Piccolo preferred. He pushed his fingertips farther inside Piccolo’s sheath, felt the deep, throbbing muscles pulsing and seizing there and he groaned more, thrust harder with his cock, sending another shockwave of euphoria through Piccolo’s whole body.

They slammed together a few more times, panting in unison, their eyes still locked. Vegeta eased his fingers out of Piccolo, applied counter-pressure so Piccolo could pull out of himself before Vegeta withdrew from Piccolo’s ass. Vegeta moaned and curled over Piccolo as he gently lowered his mate back down onto the bed.

Vegeta kissed Piccolo tenderly and curled up alongside him, cleaning Piccolo off with a bit of shredded shirt. He whispered, “Fuck, dove, you do know how to please your prince. I love you so much.”

Piccolo turned and twisted down to kiss Vegeta’s purring mouth more. After a long time, he pulled away and said, “Likewise, my only. That was incredible. I love you,” Piccolo paused and sighed happily before he said, “Did you mean what you said to Goku?”

“What? That he’s trash? Not worth my time?”

“No…that I was your vengeance? Me and the kids?”

Vegeta propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Piccolo. “Yes, you are.”

“Is…is that all?” Piccolo said, hating that the wariness in his heart still occasionally grew stunted wings and attempted to fly.

“No, you’re my love. My life. My mate. My everything. It just took me such a long time to see that being with you, having what we have, the love we share, is better than any amount of killing, any amount of beating or torture. It’s better than having Raditz back. Better than beating Frieza. Having you is better than any vengeance I can imagine. Loving you is its own reward, but its all the sweeter for meaning Kakarot is nothing to me anymore. You and the babies are all that matter. I’m sorry I had to hurt you to see that, that I made my love suffer, that I thought anything but loving you wholly would heal my broken heart.”

Piccolo chuffed out a little laugh. He kissed Vegeta and searched his own heart, finding it at last at peace. The nagging worry no longer there, replaced by even more love for his little mate, for their family. “I love you, Vegeta. I love that I can be that for you, your love or your vengeance, whatever you need me to be. Because you’re my everything too. All I ever need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for coming on yet another Vegeta/Piccolo journey with me! These two versions of two of my favorite characters were particularly hard to leave behind. I probably should have ended the story after the previous chapter, but I wanted one more stand-off with Goku so Vegeta could really come full circle, and of course I wanted to have feral Saimekian babies!
> 
> I'm eternally grateful to sendgays for their story "A Secret Training" because the whole idea of Raditz as the only good thing in Vegeta's pre-Earth life came from that. There are no other similarities, but it was that story that sparked this one, so I sincerely hope you'll give that one some love too.
> 
> I want to thank all my regular commenters (and regular secret readers--I assume there's a few of you!) for urging me along! If you read my stuff, you probably know I'm pretty prolific, and writing is something I can't live without. But I only post for you guys. It's been so fun to find out there are people that love my OTP (and my other pairings too!) and to hear that you enjoy the stuff that comes out of my brain. It means a lot to me, so thank you all for commenting and kudoing and reading! As long as people keep reading my stories, I'll keep posting :D Another finished work! Hooray!
> 
> Feel free to hit me up on Twitter @dbzkink or Discord dbzkink#0675 or to follow me at ko-fi.com/dbzkink where I will try to post new stories and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like :D


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